One Year Ago Today

Well. A year goes by like nothing, as the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers say.

On March 13, 2025, I got laid off. Or, as I like to say, I got retired.

Life has been interesting since then.

I did try to find a new job; I even tried to set up a freelance deal. I worked with a coach - it was one of my layoff “perks.”

Everything I’ve read on all the various platforms talk about ageism. They all seem to talk about how people in their 40s, 50s, and even their 60s can overcome it! I’m 74. Oh well. So I decided to stop and just be retired.

On the plus side, I collected enough unemployment compensation that I didn’t have to touch my severance pay until November.

I must say that, in spite of having to be very careful about money, I really love not working. It’s nice to be able to sleep late into the morning. It’s really nice not to have to request PTO or meet deadlines or suck up to a boss who is younger than my son.

(By the way, the online documentation that I put together is still up on the company’s website. It has not been updated. Heh.)

Finally, I entered three writing contests. (Here’s where I use the trendy “three bullet points technique.” It drives me nuts, by the way.)

• A humor writing contest. Nope.

• A personal essay contest. Nope.

• A “first chapter” contest. Finalist.

The first chapter contest was cool because you got actual feedback from an actual person, then you had a chance to revise the chapter before the final judging.

So I did that, and got the feedback. After I got over being wounded, I revised the chapter and voila, finalist! I got $50! All the finalist chapters got published in an anthology. And now I’m in a writing group run by the folks who ran the contest. It’s not free, but it’s been worth it.

That first chapter has been revised even more and I like it even more.

And that’s the most useful thing that’s happened in the last year.

XOXO