So as the title so mysteriously proclaims, I have quit my job! Celebrating tonight with a bottle of champagne and some form of chocolate cake.
Let's rewind. I got this job at an art gallery in the local mall back in October. I had just come back from Chile and was super lucky in that I got this job relatively quickly, it paid pretty well and it was incredibly easy.
I was looking for a basic, part-time job that I could use for some extra income as I went ahead and proceeded on my plans to move to Israel.
But like my best friend, Gabby, has told me a thousand times over "Every time you make plans, God laughs in your face."
And laugh he did, because while I had closed out all my bank accounts, sold my belongings on e-Bay, and had a hanging calendar counting down the days to my flight (which actually would have been today!) I managed to somehow meet the love of my life and after spending an incredible New Years together, I made the fateful decision to stay back and be with him. And I haven't looked back since.
But I knew that I could not stay in a part-time job in the mall. I needed to get experience and have a job which didn't have hourly salary, but a yearly one. And while I totally think free wifi at work is a benefit, I do also appreciate health care coverage and vacation days.
So last week I got an offer to work for a company about 45 minutes away that organizes destination weddings. So, sure- it doesn't exactly scream "4.0 GPA International Affairs Major with a concentration in Conflict & Security and minor in History" graduate, but it seemed fun and to be honest- they were the only company to reply to me after spending about six weeks searching and sending my resume out around 150 times (I kept a spreadsheet record of every place I had applied. It wasn't pretty).
The job sounds interesting. It's a relatively easy commute. The people there are all really young so there is awesome friend-making potential. It's an internet based company so I can wear jeans and don't need to to have a wardrobe overhaul of Anne Taylor separates. I think I'll be happy.
I have also had to recently re-evaluate a lot of my goals and life plans. It's only been about six weeks that I have actually decided to stay in the States and now I am still trying to piece together my life. This has sort of been my motto for this year. When I come to think of it, I shouldn't even have been here now. I should have been living in Chile, working as an ESL teacher and drinking pisco sours all day while lounging in a beach chair.
But that is life. The only thing that is guaranteed in life is change. And ever since graduation, that has been the defining feature of my life: change. And more specifically, unexpected, cataclysmic, earth-shattering change- good and bad.
So while my career and life goals have changed, a lot, I can't be deterred. I have new goals, new dreams and new hopes. And already I can tell how far I have come these past few months, because if the past version of Jessica had seen present version of Jessica working part-time in an art gallery, still living at home, in love with a Mexican bartender and planning to work in a destination wedding company- I think she would have totally freaked.
