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| Quarter snap, matcha on the way |
On October 3, I found out that my position was being eliminated at the end of the month thanks to corporate viewing a few of us as replaceable pieces on a spreadsheet and citing cost-cutting measures to maintain profitability. Because I was in the midst of covering a coworker's vacation, I found myself visibly upset to the point of losing my appetite.
How am I supposed to keep the bills paid? What does this do to my resume? Have I aged out of the role as a result of DV jobs in manufacturing becoming scarce? I remember declining an offer based in southern California a few years mostly because I was worried about return-to-office: Living in Orange County is a LOT different (and way more expensive) than Saline County. My family has gotten acclimated and as comfortable as we can be given the political and socioeconomic climates of the day; selling the house to move into an apartment across the country was a no-go.
Did my file show anything negative? Nope.
In those same thirteen years, I only missed eight days of work none since 2023.
Was loyalty the thing that made me complacent? Yeah, that lifestyle creep was a mofo indeed.
When the job created some of the most entertaining, inspiring, and fun things I've ever made plus the memories of starting out from Ground Zero to what some hobbies have evolved into with the barbecue, blog, and Black history content as part of the kaleidoscope of who I have become over the years, it can almost make me misty-eyed. You know, that includes the Dad Chronicles and the hellscape that 2025 became through my war against prostate cancer.
The blog - A Dollar and a Dream - has always been me at my most authentic self, if you cannot tell from the self-deprecating humor. As academic as it sometimes sounds (I taught for five years, and now I'm somehow back in the kid business albeit in a completely new world from what I departed from in 2012), my writing has grown from the stuff that should have paid me to the stuff that makes the world a better place - and with interesting pro-Black perspectives that occasionally spooks a few folks from my past.
Back to the job.
Once the word spread around the plant, I knew that my days driving back and forth to Haskell were coming to an end. Would I be able to go out in a blaze of glory with two middle fingers in the air on the way out? I only kept a plain manila folder with training notes and a meme reminding me of the work purpose, so no real emptying a cubicle was required. I wrote the training manual in one weekend, and as much as I wish I had gotten the market value for the document (in 2012 dollars, my contract fee was $600), I received nothing due to it becoming company-owned intellectual property.
Another circumstance that arose was insurance. I hadn't fully beaten cancer at the time, so my biggest worry concerned the expenses from the treatments, appointments, and supplies. Just because the company treated me like shit didn't mean I was in a position to reciprocate said feelings.
Yet.
I studied our savings and discovered that earlier in the year I had hit my crossover number: I won't divulge that number; however, it is enough to take a leap of faith and follow God's calling for real with a few modifications in lifestyle. As He provides and that mustard seed of faith necessary is all I need, I made that first step. Nearly three months after that meeting, Christmas Day was my final goodbye to the swamp. To some, it is admirable to make a drastic change, and to others, idiotic. Today, I'll agree to lean somewhere in the middle. Although the pay gap between the past and the present is significant - and will be made up in time - I am a LOT happier.
As I hold on to the bull's horns to enjoy the ride and grimace at those unexpected expenses, keep us - and each other - in prayer for the next move whether it is to fully commit to education, fill out a Buc-ees application, finally get my Dub Shack BBQ sauces in stores, or venture in a completely different direction. Every day is an adventure to travel one step at a time; Cooking w/Friends begins in April, if you're so inclined to join in.
God bless, I'm out.
