"You prefer unemployment to employment," one of my co-workers said

We need stronger tape.

Some days are over, and for the better. They pass, slowly but steadily, like indigestion. Last week, when I had a cold, for example. Over. All of high school? Over. Also: Days of living in the suburbs and writing general assignment news for a daily newspaper? Over.

In 2002, after graduating college, I took a job at a tiny daily paper and began the arduous task of chronicling the boring times of boring places. Community news, it turns out, was just not my thing -- so much so that I published this rant while still at the paper. I couldn’t muster the courage to care about these small-town happenings, and so, in the efforts to build a bridge out of the world of local news, I began freelancing for anybody I could. Eventually, I got a job at a significantly larger daily newspaper, where the better pay and larger circulation made things a little easier to swallow.

That’s where I’ve been for the last two and a half years. It’s been a largely good experience: I wrote some stuff I was excited about, learned to work under the daily grind, and so on. But two things weighed on me: working at this paper, in central Mass., meant I was stuck living in the suburbs instead of a major city; and I was almost always bored with what I was covering. Also, I continued increasing my freelance load, and often had to work 12-hour days to fit it all in. (And that's why, in the last few months, this blog has hit dry spells.)

So today, a change: I quit the job. I’m officially unemployed. HappyScrappy headquarters will be moving to Boston later this month (hence the posts about apartment hunting), and I’ll be freelancing full time. Perhaps a job will become available -- memo to future employers: that’d be swell! -- or perhaps I’ll get an extended lesson in budget management. Either way, I’m excited. No more driving everywhere, no more suburbs, no more small-town school committee meetings. I don't want to live in another suburb until I've got five kids, and I've named them all George.

I expect to have more time for the blog, although please bear with me for the next few weeks as we pack up and move. Thanks.

Posted by Jason Feifer at March 23, 2007 10:12 AM