Oh how I wish the new year actually meant that we could shed off all the old issues and problems of the old year and start afresh. It would make life so much simpler, honestly. Instead I started my year in a way I have not since I was old enough to work...I do not have a job.
Sadly, this actually does affect my writing, though probably more than it really should. I know some people are sitting there going "But don't you have more time to write now that you don't have to go to work?" haha...oh, I wish. Now I am spending my days filling out job applications because I have to pay off my student loans and I can't do that without an income. Nor can I afford to keep the internet going or the electricity or, oh yeah, food would be something to remember too. So now I can't even think about working on my novels because I'm actually so stressed about trying to find any sort of job so I can be making money.
Okay, this blog is not supposed to be for me to rant and whine about my life and the crap I have to deal with, but I know that what I am dealing with is an issue that a number of my fellow college graduates are also trying to handle, and it is a vitally important issue. I could try and cover up my joblessness by saying that there just aren't jobs out there for me, but there are. I see dozens of job postings each day for librarians of all types and I apply for as many as I can, but here's the sad fact...most (read that as all, actually) want their librarians to have typically 3-5 years prior experience as a librarian. Normally this would not bother me because I grew up in a library and was a library assistant for most of my junior high and high school years as well as being a student librarian in college. For some reason a good number of these places do not consider this to be experience because most of it happened before I entered college.
I have known since I was a child that I wanted to work surrounded by books, in one way or another. From junior high on the goal was to be an author, but I also knew that it is extremely difficult to live off of your writing so I decided the smart thing to do was to go to school to be a librarian. I figured that way my day job would actually help me with my side job. As a librarian I would get some fun experience and possibly some great story ideas while also perhaps being able to do some research, and then I could go home and spend a couple hours a day writing. It sounded like the perfect plan.
Then I went to school, pursued and received my B.A. in English Literature, and then went on to pursue and receive my Master's in Library and Information Science. There you go, right there, almost six years of training in the area of books and reference (how else did I do my research for all those papers?) and it basically counts for nothing in the real world.
To be able to afford to commute to grad school I had to take a job as a cashier at a gas station, and I worked there for almost two whole years, one of those years being AFTER I graduated with my Master's degree. I have applied to hundreds and hundreds of jobs, and still nothing.
Hello world, my name is Dani and my dream is to work in a place where I am surrounded by books. That is what I have wanted to do for almost all of my 24.5 years on this Earth. Books are my life. They mean more to me than I could ever hope to express. In them I have found adventure, friends, family, magic, love, a place where anything can happen and dreams come true. Books have been my constant companions and they have taught me so much about the world (real and imagined) and people. There are so many amazing books I have yet to read and who knows how many more amazing books will be released in this year and the coming years. I just want to have a job that will allow me to pay the bills and (if I'm lucky) give me enough to keep buying more amazing adventures and supporting the super people who put these stories on paper for the world to enjoy.
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