It's all about who you know

I wrote a humorous post a couple days back about how some people can be annoying when you have no job. Well, other people can also be wonderful and I wanted to share that perspective as well.

I used to take a pretty safe approach to my job. It was a fairly clear path with one skill set neatly tucked into another. By all accounts, I've had a great career so far. I win awards, people write me and tell me I changed their lives. But I ended up trying to innovate my career during a really hard time in history to be brave and bold. As a result, what I expected to work has not worked and now I need to find some new options.

Last year when my contracts dried up, I started using www.helpareporter.com as a tool to learn a different type of writing, modernize my tool kit and deal with my depression over my life and career. I started answering queries from reporters all over on assorted subject related to the economy and being a modern mom. The process of writing these queries up and talking to reporters was validating. It was exciting that anyone was interested given that I felt sucky most of the time. Then I started getting quoted in all sorts of random places- New York Times.com, Wall Street Journal ( with a drawing!), Parents magazine, Good Housekeeping, So Cal Connected.com LA Times, Cnn.com, Good Morning America.

Here's the thing with being quoted about things like having a sucky life- it stirs up things for people in your life. I got random job offers and job leads from strangers and friends alike. People sent money and presents at the holidays. One long time friend took a collection at work for us.
Friends who live far away worked together and sent an anonymous gift of a check and a tricked out Trader Joe's basket and fresh eggnog from a farm. That was awesome and we were touched by the random acts of kindness we experienced as a result of our press junket talking about "boo hoo for us."

I learned through my press that you never know who you know and you can't talk enough about what you are going through. It gets hard to keep saying "our lives suck right now" over and over again, but sometimes saying it out loud is the first step in changing the circumstances.

I hope that this year you can reach out to someone in need in your life. I know we are in a variety of ways. My kids are all too aware what a stressful holiday season looks like and they are motivating us to give to toy and foods drives because they know what it means to the recipients.
It feels good to help people and there's always someone a little needier than us.

Last year when we did the KCET web piece, my daughter said she wanted pants for a gift. A year later and she still needs pants. Things have changed in our world and it is process to face that change daily. As a family, we are focused less on what we want and more on what we need.
But we're also focusing on the many blessings we have which includes all the great people who have helped us in small and large ways this year.