How to Handle the Unexpected and Job Quest #2

When it comes to routines, I’m a bit of an expert. In fact, if I were to be the best at anything, I would be the best at routines. I love the monotony, the ease, and the utter predictability of an orderly and unsurprising day.

But how often does a day work out that perfectly?

Not often. Life (AKA an absurd amount of work) happened this week and I was forced to cope with one of its many unexpected challenges.

Though not quite as unexpected as spaghetti in a tube…

I had a plan for what I was going to write for my Friday post. My topic (which I will hopefully get to write about very soon) was one I hadn’t written about in a while and I was excited to get started. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the project in enough time to start writing about it, and I hadn’t taken pictures or obtained the necessary materials for fact checking.

So what do you do when the only blog idea you had been planning for that week ends up falling apart?

Freak out. Maybe shed a few tears. Then check the running list of topics you have been steadily adding to since you began your blog and pick one to write about.

Don’t have a list? Make one. Don’t like your ideas? Write about how you were prevented from writing about what you wanted to write about. And if you’re absolutely and completely desperate, read my Top 5 Tips to Combat Writer’s Block. It probably won’t help.

On an unrelated and yet forcibly related note (because I had nothing else planned), I took another stab at applying for a writing job this past Sunday. This job sounded perfect because it’s located near my college campus, is paid, and has flexible student-friendly hours. Excellent.

It seemed straight-forward enough: In addition to light office work, my job would be to write newsletters and feature stories about businesses or people who had made donations to the school. Not exactly what I want to be doing for the rest of my life, but it’s finally a real writing job and would look good on my resume. In my effort to impress my future employer, I wrote what is perhaps the most professional cover letter I have ever written. I spruced up my writing sample (thanks to emperort for the edits!) and my existing resume and sent it off Sunday night in the hopes that it would be the first thing my new boss would see that day.

And it was. But rather than getting the quick, positive response I was hoping for, I received a fast, soul-crushing rejection. In no way objected to me (I don’t even know if she read my application), the woman whom I thought was to be my job savior wrote back and let me know that the position was already in the process of being filled, but that they would keep my application on file for future reference.

Once again, my job dreams have been swept out from under me. Time to mourn.

Who said being a writer was easy?