Independence
The following was on the front page of the Oregonian Saturday morning:
“Each week, about 600 Oregonians exhaust jobless benefits. In January, about 4,000 a week will lose coverage. . . In April more than 35,000 people will exhaust benefits in a single week. . . 741,419 Oregonians are on the supplemental nutritional assistance program.”
With these numbers, it is no surprise that I have not been able to get a job. And it seems to me that the desperation is going to increase exponentially very soon. The entire west coast is in essentially the same situation. The message that I am taking away from this is a resounding “Get out!”
So I have started applying for teaching positions on the east coast, further south of you (Virginia, Maryland, DC, the Carolinas, etc.) because the unemployment rate there is about half what it is here.
My BIG concern is that the school year doesn’t start for another nine months, and what am I going to do in the meantime?
I was bemoaning my situation to an unemployed friend here in Portland, lamenting that I just want my independence back. She told me that these are different times, and that independence is just not a reasonable expectation anymore.
