Just Over Broke

Let me start by saying that during this Pandemic, I have not worked a regular 40 hr a week job since April 2020. After applying to several positions, I am still not working full time yet. The last unemployment data I saw for my home county was 7.2%, with just over 30,000 people living here, that 7.2% is a decent amount of people that do not have a steady income.

Here it is December 2020 and the extra loan money I took out on student aid is dwindling fast, and I still have bills to pay. This past September, I joined a company with the intention of obtaining my Life and Securities Licenses, and that process has been a lot harder than I anticipated. I'm still working on the study material, but there are days where I wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew. My Bachelor's program for Business and Financial Planning is halfway finished, and my college classes are a cakewalk compared to the material found in this insurance and securities testing but, carry on I shall, and obtain my license I will. There's a reason for this, as you will find out as you read along...

During one of the very first podcasts that I watched while getting familiar with the new company that I will be working for, the speaker brought up this humorous anecdote he coined as J.O.B. or "just over broke" which is what he used to describe what us people that are slaving away at some sad, dead-end 9-5 end up doing, and how they have no savings or really anything substantial to show for having said job...in fact, they usually came out Just Over Broke by the time they had paid the bills and tended to that thing we call life. That got me thinking, did I really want to spend the next 20 years working at a J.O.B, or did I want to do something meaningful and substantial with my effort and time? The idea of before, when I was working said miserable 40 hr a week job and how at the end of the week I was Just Over Broke really made sense.

I have always been one of those people that had dreams of being self-made. Working at a J.O.B, of which I was always under someone's thumb and being their little drone for a paycheck that has yet to get me anywhere aside from Just Over Broke, has never made me happy. Tell me, who is really happy with knowing they are making more money for someone else than they will ever see in their lifetime? Do you really enjoy the idea that your boss is making a bonus of $100,000 extra a year partially on your time and effort? Unless you are making that kind of money yourself, I doubt that idea is appealing.

I finally got tired of the J.O.B. life, struggling every week to pay bills and keep my head above water, coming home aching, worn out and my brain fried every day, and having just as much at home to do before I even got to bed. It became Wash, Rinse, Repeat. I was suffering in ways that would soon manifest into something much deeper down the road. My last manufacturing job ended up with me having carpal tunnel surgery and then having to quit because HR refused to let me take that much paid time off. It was peak production time, and they were not remotely happy with me. Even medical documents that stated how long I needed to take off and a request to have even just two weeks of PTO was denied and waved off like so much scrap paper to be thrown in the trash. The plant manager was more concerned about earning his bonus off of my back than he was about my medical issues to start with. I had not worked there long enough to claim the company paid benefits, so I was SOL.

A few months later I found out from my Spine/Ortho Dr. that the worsening extent of my health issues would no longer allow me to work in industrial trades or manufacturing. When your own Dr. says that you cannot do certain jobs or similar activities like that anymore, that really throws things into perspective. That was my epiphany, my sign from the universe that was forcing me to make a decision, whether I was ready or not. It wasn't too long afterward, while job hunting for a lighter duty career choice, that I coincidentally stumbled upon my current company, the listing popped up out of nowhere as if the universe itself just put it there for me to see. As Jeff Foxworthy likes to say "Here's your sign!" You are a blind fool if you ignore a higher calling or a sign from above like that. That is how I ended up leaving the J.O.B. life, and now I am working towards something that will be more rewarding and successful, my time is now, and I'm ready.