I had a small Penske truck full of useless junk, most just called "art projects"... and a terrified pet turtle sitting in a tank on the front seat. I was surrounded by truckers wearing leather vests and with long, scraggly beards. The gift shop sold Indian dream catchers, pop rocks and t-shirts with wolves on them. And not the lame Twillight kind of wolves... the weird, "who buys this crap" kind of design work wolves. Behind the truck, my mother was driving my little silver car- which also needed gas. She had flown down to help me move from Atlanta to Maine. I just kept swiping my little debit card at the pump as if the words "denied" were just symbols on an ancient Egyptian burial tomb.
But now it was clear. I was officially broke. And unemployed.
Everything I owned, I paid for. My desk, my clothes, my food, my diploma. But I couldn't pay to put gas in my rented moving truck and car. And all I wanted to do was get out of the South and back home to Maine. I had just finished a program at a portfolio school for creative advertising. There were little to no jobs in Atlanta- much like the rest of the country. But definitely no creative jobs.
Sure, I would miss my friends, my girls and my bar trivia buddy. But I'm a New England girl at heart. And if you have been raised by the ocean, you can't live in a land locked town.
It was one of the worst and most defining moments of my life. I knew it was bad, but I also knew it could only get better from there. With a loan, a long talk and a hug from my mom, we finally continued driving.
When I got back to Maine, I hit the ground running working babysitting jobs, freelance design gigs and selling my little paintings. I didn't stop trying and I didn't stop working in Maine of all places. And I paid my mom back for the Pennsylvania rescue. It brought her and I closer together and made me realize that some people are definitely meant to be Moms.
It sounds bad but it's amazing what you can do in a year. New job, new apartment, new great friends, and a new outlook on life. Lots of news. You keep going and work hard because you have to. No one has it easy and if you do, you don't appreciate what you got. Anything good is worth a real struggle. And if it has been tough, no one will know what you've gone through either. That's what makes you unique. You bring more to the table when you've had more experience. And I count being stranded at a truck stop in Pennsylvania as experience. I also count it as a great bar story.
It's hard to stay positive all the time- for anyone, but things in motion stay in motion. So I firmly believe that you don't have to be completely positive, you just have to be entirely realistic that things do get better. Everything and anything could be worse.
Just be thankful when they get better.
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