What did I sign up for?

Growing up I always had this vision of being one of those stay-at-home wives who just took care of the children and kept the house clean.  I grew up around my aunts being stay-at-home moms and I really had no idea what I wanted to do when I got older, so that seemed like a good backup plan. Fast forward a few years later after me and my fiance (at the time) moved to California and somehow I ended up getting my wish. However, this idyllic image I had in my head as a young child was not as dreamy as you would imagine it to be.

Let me rewind a bit.  My now husband, Tim and I had met at a bar in Seattle, Washington. I had moved there a few years prior to him just trying to start over and “find myself”, as one does when they are 19-20 years old. We had some mutual friends and it was bound to happen that we eventually meet. Fast forward 3.5 years later and we are engaged to be married! For all those naysayers out there that don’t believe you can meet your true love at a bar, I am here to tell you that you are WRONG. Things seem to be working out just fine for us.

After Tim proposed, the following weekend we had decided to head back to eastern Washington to show off my new ring, and fiance to my family. The drive back home is roughly three and a half to four hours depending on the driver. About three hours into our trek my new fiance turns to me and says, “I have to tell you something…”. This wasn’t a huge surprise for me, as he usually ends this with, “I  love you,” but this time he informs me about this great job opportunity he was given by his boss. The job included us moving to Los Angeles, California for a minimum of three years and it was a great upwards move for his career. We immediately went over the pros and cons of the move and within the last hour of our trip, decided that we were going to do it.

I was 19-years old when I moved to Seattle. I had no job, no savings, and no friends. This was the first time I had ever lived on my own. The only other time I had moved away from home was when I graduated high school. I had moved to Alabama to my aunt and uncle’s house where I attended community college, but shortly after, dropped out and moved back home again.  The move to Seattle was by far one of the biggest leaps of faith and my most strengthening experience I had gone through at that point in my life. As the years went on I made friends, found jobs, and was fully able to take care of myself in all aspects of life. I guess time allows you to forget the hardships you go through during those types of life-changing moments because I had completely forgotten the difficult periods I had endured in those first few months in Seattle.

The move was good for both of us. It was an opportunity for me to get out of nannying and focus on working towards my career in marketing. I had been going to school on and off for years and finally committed myself to finishing my degree (still working on that). Tim had his career stuff all figured out. We got to California on August 31st and he was in the office the following day. Upon making this life-changing decision and living the dream out in California (only a block away from the beach), it never occurred to me that having zero experience in any sort of office may lessen my chances of getting a job. In fact, I thought it would be easy to get a non-paying internship as long as I was enrolled in school.

For the weeks (months) that I was “funemployed” it really started to weigh on me. Here I was, 27-years old starting my career and fully financially dependent on my fiance. I was trying to get the most basic position possible that usually required little to no experience in the work world and I was utterly failing at it.

Week after week of applying and getting rejection letter after rejection letter I decided I needed just anything to get by. I applied for a hostessing job at a restaurant near me and within the same day of getting that job, I also got hired on as an intern for a marketing company, unpaid of course.

One of my biggest takeaways from that short period of time was that you really need to find happiness in all situations. Taking even the smallest steps forward can be such a rewarding feeling, especially when you are feeling low. For me, this foot in the door was a small win, and ended up being an important learning experience for me as time went on.