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Unrest in 2020
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2020 has been an unprecedented year in so many ways, where lives have been turned upside down, people and families losing their jobs or businesses they own, seeing loved ones get the virus, and some pass away, parents and kids are confused and frustrated about what to do for schooling!!
Besides all this, it is an ugly election year and people take wearing a mask as something political instead of saving someone’s life. So much hate and anger are consuming what hope we might have left. We are seeing injustice throughout the country as some police officers seem to inflict excessive force on unarmed Afro-American men which can end in their demise.
With George Floyd’s death, communities say they have had enough of the inequality among races and how one race can be treated so differently when arrested than another. I grew up in the ’60s and saw how people were not treated equally then and how little has changed for hundreds of years. People just seemed to look the other way and not stand up for someone when it came to the police, and how they were treated differently because of the color of their skin, and many times murdered.
Unfortunately, too many people were shot or killed in situations and with body cams and cell phones, it shows that their treatment was not justified. The protests began and now they are getting support from many different ethnicities who are asking for “social justice”. Let’s pray hatred and symptomatic racism ends!
How jobs are different since the pandemic
Before the pandemic, people had jobs and the unemployment rate was low, people were traveling and making purchases without blinking an eye, but did they love and enjoy their job or just go to work for the paycheck. I retired the December 2018 and I noticed we were having to pay more for our benefits and getting less for it and having to pay more out of our own pockets. Luckily, in 2017 I was able to get on Medicare and pay less for better coverage.
At the end of 2019, I retired from a real estate career and became a full-time blogger, and found my calling by sharing my experiences that other people could also be experiencing and share different ways to deal with obstacles we can encounter in life.
2020 the coronavirus hit the world like a tidal wave. We had weak leadership, guidance, and mixed messages in the beginning so people didn’t know who to listen to. Cases started multiplying quickly, so businesses were closed down and we were all told to stay home and only go out to buy essentials.
The virus kept growing, and after a few weeks, some states started opening up businesses again, and unemployment was reaching higher levels than the last recession. More and more states opened up and by the summer cases were spiking out of control and some states were shutting back down again until the cases subsided to hopeful control.
We are in September and still losing about a 1000 people a day, and now kids are trying to go back to school, but the cases are also spiking at the schools and colleges. Some jobs are gone for good and many owners are losing their businesses.
With an election year added, people are experiencing anxiety and depression, having political battles on social media, and without true guidance feeling helpless and hopeless about the future. Will their life get better before they are evicted, and more and more can’t pay their bills or put food on the table?
What will the new norm be like once a vaccine is hopefully available and will enough people be willing to take the vaccine? Will the job market get back to what it was in the near future? Time will tell!!
“What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”
~ Oprah Winfrey
Follow A Career Or Your Passion
I left my accounting job to become a Mary Kay Consultant in the late ’90s and became a Mary Kay Director in the early 2000s, and had 30 wonderful ladies in my unit, but within a few years, I decided to join the real estate market to help people find their dream home.
Both of these were my jobs of passion, but you don’t have the security that you have working the 8 to 5 job. You have to carry your own insurance for health and dental, you don’t have a 401K where your employer matches what you put in at about 8%. Your income fluctuates, and you don’t get paid when you get sick or go on vacation.
I had been self-employed before and enjoyed being my own boss, but during the recession that started in 2007 we went through some hard times, so I had to go back to an 8 to 5 job, as I had become the breadwinner and did my real estate part-time as we had the market crash. In a few years, we were able to get back on our feet, but I hated working for someone else.
Finding the right job or career is something we all search for, but I realized you have to look at it realistically. Many people have been forced to work from home during this pandemic, including my son who works for the state.
As long as you aren’t on Zoom, or other platforms where you are seen on the screen, you can work in your pajamas. You don’t have to deal with traffic and weather conditions, and supervisors or bosses who can always find something more important for you to do than what you are working on at the moment.
You can save money by eating at home instead of unhealthy fast-food restaurants. Of course, this is temporary, but I have a feeling that in the new norm, more and more people will continue to work at home if this has been successful for certain companies. Many great ideas have come from living through this pandemic. Brick and mortar are becoming a thing of the past as time goes by.
I understand schools need that one-on-one connection to get the full benefit of learning and in order to get the socialization, we all need. It will be interesting to see how schooling changes once the virus is under control.
If you decide to go for your passion and own your own business or be self-employed it won’t be easy. Yes, you are your own boss, but you also have to find and pay for your own health and dental insurance, plus other expenses, you MUST be disciplined in managing your time, and be prepared to work more hours than you would at an 8 to 5 job.
In conclusion
I have experienced working a job and also my passion over time, and my comfort zone, happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment ended up being my passion. Getting a regular paycheck was easier, but the office beauracracy was exhausting.
You can’t go back on the “what ifs”, but since I retired I wish I would have gone for my passion earlier in life. Everything happens for a reason, and I am now loving what I am doing, plus sharing experiences and giving inspiring solutions to people through hard times and obstacles they might encounter.
This is a personal decision for you and your family. You will probably have to think about this differently depending on the road you decide to take. Think of your priorities and see what situation will be best for a happier life, mentally, spiritually, and physically.
If you decide to go for the paycheck, try to be sure it is something you want to do for years and don’t get stuck staying at a position you hate! Don’t be afraid to move on to something else that can give you the security you are looking for. I hope you discover what that might be sooner than I did!
If you found this post useful, please comment below with your feedback, or share it with friends and family and on social media. Thanks!
Here is another post I wrote about entrepreneurship that can also be helpful in trying to make a decision on what direction you might want to go – Are You Thinking Of Becoming An Entrepreneur?
See you soon, Denise
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Thanks for sharing this Miss Denise. It means a lot to me.
You are welcome and thank you, April! I hope you found it to be useful information.
Great post, Denise. One day we will have our new normal. I’m blessed to be at a job that I love. November will be 21 years. I hope to retire in three more years at which time I plan to blog full-time too! Keep up the great writing!!?
Thank you, Brenda! Yes, we will have a new normal someday, and so glad you love your job as it makes working so much more gratifying. Retirement will be here quicker for you than you think and a whole new world can open up for you and your new dreams and adventures!
I agree that 2020 has been quite a dramatic year. Where I live, the cases are now 1000+ and I near have a mini panic attack every time I hear the new numbers, so I can’t just imagine what it’s like living in the affected American states. My heart goes out to the families who’ve been severely affected and I’m praying for the day this catastrophe is no more.
I agree about the direction of the job sector in this our “new normal” and relate to your quote about going with your heart. That’s why I’m working hard on my blog business, as well. I’m lucky to still be gainfully employed, but you’ll never know what the future holds.
Go job and good luck!
Thank you for your comment, Karema! Yes, let’s keep praying for a better world after this pandemic where people are kind to their fellow man and we go in a positive direction for all. A place where people are treated equally and don’t have to work two or three jobs in order to make a living, where the government does more in helping our country thrive and not focus on the politics first.
Interesting and insightful read. I appreciate the perspective of following your passions, just can be challenging to align it with financial stability. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for your comment, Michelle! That is the hard part, you have to strive to create a plan. Going for your passion doesn’t work for everyone. Something you seriously have to think through to see what will work realistically. You might have to experience several scenarios before you figure it out.