Seeing 20/20 in 2020.
By: Mason C.B.
Tags: 2020, Self Reflection, Self, Self Improvement, Lessons Learned

Today (December 13th, 2020) marks exactly one year since going against what everyone was telling me to do and following my own course.

It turned out well… it just took a lot more patience than I had planned for.

How It Started: November 2019

Well at the end of November, I had a great job at a small local IT place, an apartment to myself (big deal after living with roommates for 5 years), and I was putting some money away in savings.

Things were… good? But as you can probably guess, I wanted more.

Photo by Des Récits on Unsplash

I found myself stuck in my college town after graduation with most of my friends being much older co-workers.

I mean they had houses, kids, property taxes. I was just… 24.

Sure being 24 meant I was still in the college crowd but while the old bars and music venues were great, but there is only so much I can gain from them now.

Spending my evenings with a glass of whiskey listening to my peers sing “Sweeeeeet Car-o-line, BA, BA, BA” for the thousandth time was hardly inspiring. I needed to get away.

So with my friends list dwindling and my list of things to do in town looking rather repetitive, I decided it was time to leave.

The Mighty Fall: 2020

So, I will spare you the details as frankly, I don’t wish to relive them. Long story short the plan was to move in January and find a job within 3 months.

In reality, it took me 7–8 months, I totaled my only car, had a job offer taken back, and oh yeah… the pandemic started.

January 2020: I made my move to Raleigh. A city I decided on only 3 weeks ago. Now, I grew up here so I was luckily able to reconnect with some old friends. That marked the social requirement off, at least temporarily.

But the first big roadblock? My car got totaled 2 weeks after moving here. Some idiot pulled out in front of me and we crashed. Bad start to the year.

Luckily, some family let me share a vehicle for a while after that so all was not lost. It was this vehicle that allowed me to make it to an interview early in February that would be the first step (of many) in getting the job I now have.

February: Making progress. Got a few interviews and got my first offer letter… the day before lockdown started.

The day after, I received an email taking back that offer because of the uncertainty of what the shutdown was going to do.

Turns out, I now had that same feeling of uncertainty … about my own future.

Photo by Hamza NOUASRIA on Unsplash

March, April, May, June: No Mans Land. Jobs didn't exist. The pandemic was in full swing and the only way I was really buying food still was because I received a payout from my totaled car, thus supplementing my savings.

I mean it was full “rice and beans” for about 4–5 months. Depression was in full swing and it really felt as if all was lost for me.

It was quite possibly the lowest point I have ever felt. I spent most of my days sleeping and waiting for phone calls back about jobs at companies that were now closed. I could no longer see my friends as they were further from where I was living and everything was closed thanks to the virus.

Even fallback jobs like wait staff, cashiers, and call centers wouldn’t take me because of the pandemic. I couldn’t even apply for unemployment as I was in a new state and I had quit my last job. They don't pay quitters.

I considered calling it quits once and for all by moving back home with family. There were a few weeks near the end that I was spending trying to figure out what “failure” might look like.

I started saying to myself that everyone was right, I should have played it safe and kept my job. Now I'm broke, without a job or a car, and nobody is hiring.

…except for that one place I mentioned earlier.

The Major Lift: July 2020

After 7 months of living off scraps and surviving the pandemic, I got the call.

Not only was it a call with an offer for a position (I would take anything at this point), but it was also a call with an offer for THE position.

The one I had wanted since applying to it in January when I moved here. It was exactly what I wanted when I left my job in 2019: Location, salary, career experience, benefits, great co-workers. It had everything.

Photo by Adam Jang on Unsplash

In a way, it was poetic.

I mean, I was at the point where if the call had been to turn me down, I would have started packing up the car (that wasn’t even mine) to move back in with my parents. That call was my last resort.

…until another call came in.

Yes, on the exact same day 7 months after making no progress, I received 2 competitive job offers within about 30 minutes of each other.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

How It’s Going: December 2020

Well, things must be going pretty well if I am finding time to write about it…

I have been at my job since late July and I am lucky enough to be able to work and learn from home with the help of a great team.

I got the position I hoped for, the salary increase with it, the city I wanted, and I even got around to getting another car just last week.

I have my own apartment and I am starting to work back on catching up again financially. Granted, the pandemic is still in full swing and that is really not cool, but sadly that is a story for another day.

Anyway, to get to where I am now certainly was not a lone feat. I had some support (and some critics) that helped me along the way.

But without my efforts in pushing through job applications, studying and prepping for interviews, and hounding my eventual employer about the position I was after, I would not be where I am today. It was the biggest test of mental fortitude and patience that I had ever had.

Well, I hope that if you have made it this far and you are finding yourself in a similar situation to the first part of my year, that I have provided some relief.

Remember, that it was at my breaking point that things took a turn for the better.

Hell, at one point I even thought about giving up. But, when faced with the option of calling it quits or moving forward, I always chose the latter.

This is my 2020 story. If I can turn it around, you can too.