UNEMPLOYMENT

Over the past several months, Bryce and I have been able to reflect on our lives and determine what matters most to us. Back in May of this year, Bryce graduated with his Master's Degree in Hospital Administration. We were both very excited and thrilled that our "poor student/college days" had come to end. We were both anticipating the new working world and finally being able to make some money (paid holidays....uh hello....sign me up) and not pay it out continuously for tuition. If we had known the events that would have transpired after graduation, Bryce and I would have been shocked and speechless, to say the least. Back in January of this year, Bryce had been applying for jobs/fellowships to have lined up for after he graduated school. We believed he would land a good starting job and transition smoothly from school into career. At this time, the economy wasn't doing so well and there was always talk of a recession. Anyone who had money invested in the stock market typically wasn't doing so well with their investments. Bryce and I use to joke that was one nice thing about having no money--we had NONE to invest, so that was one positive about being students and therefore, the recession did not have an effect on us. For the first several months, we sat there laughing, yet grateful that being poor actually had worked to our advantage and we were glad we hadn't felt the effects of a lagging economy on our pocketbooks. I guess we spoke to soon.

After applying to numerous jobs (and I mean numerous...about 30 each month since January), Bryce had some interviews but nobody was really hiring. In fact, most companies were doing the opposite and either firing or laying people off. Things that were starting to come his way were soon canceled or changed because of the poor economy. We kept telling ourselves that we were sure we'd know something official by March. March, April, and May came and went with no success. We told ourselves that surely we would know something by August. June flew by and during the month of July, Bryce was finally going to be offered an outstanding position at a company--but that, too, ended up falling through the cracks.

As you all know, we are now approaching the end of August and we are still facing unemployment. It has been quite a test and trial of our faith and a very difficult last 5 months. We've had a lot of up's and down's, but along the way, we have been forced to try and see the positive in every situation. We try and still count our blessings that we have food to eat and a roof over our heads. We have learned to scrimp and save more (if that were even possible after being a poor student!) and to trust in the Lord. We have learned many lessons throughout these past months, but one of the biggest ones, was to not judge people or their situations. We all have our battles we must face and most of us are all doing what we can to make things better.

As of right now, we have some potentially good leads with jobs. Bryce has continued applying everywhere (we've also been applying to lots of places out of state), that we have even consented to move to Wyoming if we had too. Hopefully, something will come about from his hard effort and networking. We have been open to anything and our grateful for those who have helped us along the way. We continue to pray that here, soon, we will receive a job offer.