i’m leaving here with something

why unemployment was the best thing to ever happen to me

6 am: Wake up and get ready 

7 am: Leave the house, take 2 buses to get to PMS 

8:25 am: Start work and contemplate what I’m doing with my life 

Thursday 24th March to Wednesday 1st June. For 10 weeks I worked in a warehouse in Basildon. PMS. And dear God I hated every bit of it.

After not receiving a full-time offer from my internship at a charity, I left (jumped before I was pushed - but this is a whole different story) in mid-February. My morale was already at an all-time low, and PMS ensured I had a comfortable dwelling place at rock bottom.

Now, this is the thick of Essex. Geezers and West Ham fans; football ultras who don’t care about decorum and niceness. Once word got around that I had a uni degree, the abuse soon followed. “This guy went to uni and he’s stuck here with us”. 

During my first week, I miscalculated how many boxes were on a stack and earned myself the nickname “72”. Everything said to me during this period was definitely a joke but when your ego was already as shattered as mine, every subtle comment was a hairline fracture to an already breaking self-esteem.

But I can’t complain. Because those 10 weeks in the warehouse and the 4 months of unemployment taught me more than in any other period of my life. I’ll get onto the lessons I learnt in a minute but if there’s one thing that that mid-February to early-June period taught me, it’s this:

Use your transition moments. Just because life isn’t going in the direction you want it to, doesn’t mean it has come to a halt.

As soon as I got out of that mindset, I realised that I was becoming productive again and not allowing myself to be a victim of my circumstances. This newsletter, for example, was birthed out of that period.

What I mean is the periods in your life that may not be conventional or seen as a period of transition to another stage shouldn’t be wasted. It’s a perfect time to readjust, regroup and re-strategize. What do you want out of life? What are you doing with your life right now? What else could you be doing?

Weird example but now I have a job in Brighton. It takes me 2.5 hours to get to work in the morning (let’s not even talk about it). I usually use the time to get some creative stuff done or tick off things from my to-do list. Or checking social media, replying to messages, and writing this article. Even if I use that time to sleep or eat, at least I am preparing myself for the workday ahead and maximizing my output for the day (I’m fuelled and well-rested). Whatever I can do to make up the time. That’s how you turn transition moments into productive ones.

The point being: don’t let life pass you by. Put life in a headlock and tell it to give you everything it has.

Like the story of Denzel Washington going to the Oscars and taking the food and flower arrangements after he didn’t win an award that night.

I try and make the most of the crap that life throws me. When life gives you lemons, you learn how to juggle, join the circus, save up the money, invest it into crypto, flip it, and become a billionaire.  

As I Grow Older, I try and make the most out of everything life has to offer, you learn a lot on the bad days. I’ll leave you today with the lessons I learnt from that period:

Lesson 1: Life can really bring you low at anytime. Be humble and never look down on anyone.

Lesson 2: Joy is your best friend

Lesson 3: Your body will fail you, pray your Spirit doesn’t

Lesson 4: Don’t value things that fade

I used to put a lot of my hope and identity in the fact that I was quite academic and went to good unis. Despite having this, I couldn’t get a good job, which left me confused. At the end of the day, the things that I valued was status and my work and educational achievements gave me that. Now I know that you can’t lean on things that aren’t built for eternity.

Lesson 5: Know God

I’m Christian. But I don’t think I fully understood the nature of God until those 4 months. Got to see Him for who He really is and my relationship with Him has been better for it.

Love, Peace & Blessings

Abs.