The waiting

So here’s something that I’m finding right now. I’ve had a cracking year out, done loads of exciting things, a bit of supply teaching, trained to go into a new career and now…the job hunt.

Here’s the problem – I’m not getting a job on the timescale I laid out in my head. I have applied to lots, but have only had one interview in the new career sector. I didn’t get it because they felt I was overqualified, but want me to apply to a different role they have coming out. Which is lovely feedback, but still leaves me without a job.

Ladders is supposed to be about a child on her educational journey, but I’m feeling like the little girl on the ladder, climbing towards something but feeling incredibly frustrated. I want to give up, get off, and just go back to a job I was getting bored of. But.

But I’m lucky. I am not yet desperate enough to need to go for any random thing. I am surrounded by incredibly supportive people who are encouraging me to hold on, to hold out, to wait for the job that’s right for me. I have friends who understand what it is to walk the line of desperation and hope, who know what it is to have a dream and hold out for it.

The job market is tough at the moment. In many ways, life is tough right now. Anxiety and mental health issues are high, the economy sucks, changes are being made right, left and centre. It would be so easy to panic, lash out, give up. But I am choosing to just breathe.

Waiting is the hardest game. The unknown is scary, but there is hope that ultimately things will be ok in the end. And if they’re not ok? Then it’s not the end.

To everyone waiting right now, hang in there. Stay on the ladder, doing what you need to do to keep going. Just breathe, and keep climbing until you realise what you were climbing for: freedom.