I write blogs for a variety of reasons.  This one is designed for anyone who is having trouble finding a job.  I speak from experience in that I’ve had about 45 jobs during my life.  I count my current work is one job but in reality I get new jobs almost every day.  As a writer and editor I have to find new work and I work with several companies.

            But this blog has not really about me.  It is about my wife, Sheila.  My wife and I have had very different backgrounds when it comes to our family life.  I was one of nine children in a family that lived in four different U.S. states and moved from the east coast to the west coast of the U.S. and vice versa (meaning, in reverse from the west to the east) several times.  When I was six years old, unbeknownst to me (using an old English term, unbeknownst, meaning unknown to me) my wife’s parents bought the house in 1958 where I’m sitting now.  That is, rather than traveling constantly from state to state her parents managed to stay in one location for a very long time.  I had two younger brothers and two older sisters and two younger sisters and two older brothers (I said that in a little bit like Chinese word order, but intentionally did not give the eldest the first place in my sentence).  In contrast, my wife had no brothers and only two sisters (this time I used a more American style not telling you whether she is older or younger than her sisters).

            My father claimed he could find a new job in three days no matter where he lived.  I’ve done that myself and I still feel that way.  My wife, on the other hand, had a father and mother who tended to keep the single job and not move from place to place.  What a person’s parents to has a strong influence on how that person lives their life.  The rules we led by our established in childhood.  As adults we’re very reluctant to make changes.  We don’t like change.  We avoided like the plague, as we say in English.

            My wife’s attitude towards work is that she likes to have one job and keep it without changing.  I’m just the opposite.  If I don’t like a job I’m ready to move on instantly.  That’s why I’ve had about 45 jobs in my life.  But when two people get married over the years they began to think more and more like.  I’m a little more likely to remain settled and my wife is a little more adventurous than she used to be.  When we returned to Mountain Home in 2008 she thought she would only have one more job during her career.  She wanted to find a good job and stick with it.  But that’s not what happened.

            Instead the job that she did take and liked very much changed constantly.  In four years the building was at three different locations and the owners of the business changed three times.  As someone who does not like such changes my wife was very uncomfortable with this.  In fact, last December she did something I thought she would never do.  She quit her job.  She is done that before when we moved to different cities but I had never known her to simply quit one job in seek another.  Many years ago she quit one job when someone offered her a better one but she had never simply quit and then started looking for work.

            In the past she would have taken the first job offered to her.  But now she waited and finally took a job she thought she might like.  A week later she shocked me again.  She quit.  She simply walk down on the first day of the second week and said essentially, “I don’t like this job.  It’s not for me.  I quit.” To my surprise, an hour later another office where she had applied earlier called and offered her a job with higher pay and with a type of work she enjoys.

            So what’s my point?  Why tell you all this?  You may be young and looking for a job.  You may be in college and wondering what your next job will be.  I would advise you to take Sheila’s is attitude.  You may have to take the first job offered to you.  Like me, at times, you may be glad to have almost any job you can get.  But as time passes you will probably find the pressure of finding a new job is not as great as it used to be.  As time passes life gets easier.  As we say in English, “Been there.  Done that.  Don’t want the t-shirt.” What does that mean?  I’ve been there, and I’ve had that experience.  I’ve done that before (whatever “that” is).  I didn’t like it and I don’t want a t-shirt with a company name (or a t-shirt commemorating some event).  I’m simply saying, as we say in English, “Don’t sweat it.” Finding a job is very frustrating.  But we spend a lot of worry over nothing.  If you’re serious, you’ll find a job.  Why?  Diligent, honest, hardworking, faithful people will always be in demand whether it’s in the workplace, in marriage, in school, in college, and even as volunteers.  There will always be someone who’s more lazy, dishonest, lazy, and unfaithful people.  It is not too hard to be the average.  In fact, it’s not too hard to be above average.  Why?  Because it’s so easy to do nothing.  Someone will always take the easy way out.  But not everyone will try to work harder.  Good work is usually rewarded.  Bad work is also usually rewarded, just not the same way.