Work Life Balance?

I hadn't realised that it's been 10 months since my last Vocal Media entry, and if I think back to what happened at work approximately 10 months ago... it sort of makes sense. I'm not out of the woods yet. But I am in a very different situation.

And, that has happened, time and time again. Since the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020, I'm now up to my 4th job and in a completely different industry to where I had been.

To say that it has been physically, mentally, and spiritually "exhausting" has been an understatement. I think I just scraped by without having a mental breakdown. I think if you look back at all the bad poetry I wrote on here you can kind of get a sense of some emotional turmoils, but of course I didn't let on any real specifics. (Also, I may have deleted a lot of them, I'm not sure now).

In some ways I feel like I was a little early in my employment overhaul, as I'm seeing a lot of content creators now commenting on their jobs shake up, their mass redundancies that they're witnessing or been a lamb in the slaughter with.

Now, what?

One of my most popular poems here to date as been about romanticising the Millennial urge to just get off the grid and leave it all behind. (That's still at the back to my mind, don't get me wrong!) But the reality is, there's still many other bills and debts to pay. (Don't get me started on my student debts!)

I have done way too much studying, and still I'm getting so many Instagram ads for other higher degrees, in completely different industries -- yet again -- like, surely, how many different "work lives" can Millennial and Gen Z live in one lifetime?

I feel like I am in my third or fourth "incarnation" of where I'm going with my career, but I am also just not quite there yet. I'm still weighing out some options, so it's just not 100% clear to me right now.

Money is tight. Oh yes, it is tight and it is suffocating. Maybe that's why I'm back on here; hey! If y'all like my writing then I can earn a tiny bit more on here, right?

I've tried amassing followers on Tik Tok -- my strategy is not going very well because I don't have enough energy to keep at it everyday. And I know my content is not that captivating, it's kind of half arsed, ngl.

Twitter monetization? How's that going for anyone? I know it is theoretically possible, but I haven't heard of any actual success stories of someone becoming a full time Tweeter and getting a substantial income from that style of writing (or meme generation).

Gig economy? Side hustles?

In my experience with the gig economy, I'm just not in that large of a city. So it doesn't feel like there are that many "gigs" to even bid on, let alone be picked as a service provider. The same is going for job hunting. It's a struggle if the company I'm even interested to work with, is simply not in my area, and not offering a fully remote role. That already hinders me whereas, isn't it simply my brain that you'd need? I can do all those things in that job description, and I know what I'm doing. But if you need me to physically be there, well, I don't live there, and it's not happening.

As for the fully remote roles -- there are probably tens of thousands (I'm assuming) other applicants throughout the world applying to them. Or at least, that is how it's feeling for me.

So, I don't know y'all, I haven't found the right formula, but I promise when I do, I'll be back here sharing with you!