You Can't Spell Recession Without Recess

In the Osseo Area School District, a child enters elementary school in kindergarten and graduates after sixth grade, where they move on the junior high school. In the San Diego Unified School District, elementary school ends after fifth grade, and then students move on to middle school. It's a subtle difference, one that parents probably don't really worry about. It's probably one that children don't really think about much either, unless they are like me, where they moved in the middle of 6th grade and miraculously went from elementary school to middle school within a week. That's right folks. I never graduated from elementary school.

While it's easy to make the argument that 6th grade is 6th grade, I'd beg to differ. There is one huge difference between elementary school and middle school: recess. As a 6th grader at Palmer Lake Elementary School, we had time to eat, and then time to play. At Wangeheim Middle School, there was time to eat, and if you wanted to eat fast or not eat at all, time to get about 10 minutes of four-square in. The grassy playground and fields of Palmer Lake also were replaced by pavement and some lines for four square. During PE, we had to wear school shirts and shorts with our names stenciled on them. I felt like I was placed in a prison.

Obviously I managed to survive the shocking adjustments of middle school life. It's now 16 years later, I've gone through high school, college and have landed on my feet in the "real world". I face much larger issues now: a crumbling economy, paying for rent and insurance, and bracing myself for a potential layoff. My morale has been surprisingly high in such a dire time with unemployment rates rising. Maybe it's because I've survived unemployment before, maybe it's because I'm anticipating it opposed to being blindsided by it, or maybe it's because I'm just worn out.

I'm definitely grateful that I'm employed, whether I'm working my dream job or not. I'm fortunate to have made it this far in the recession, but I'm going to be able to live comfortably for a while, and I will believe that things will have happened for the greater good in the end. I may no longer be in the market for a black velvet blazer or a brand new guitar, but I also won't have to sit in an office trying to figure out how to make it through another week.

I first tasted unemployment a couple of years ago. It came 48 hours after the ending of a long term relationship, so in a way, you could perceive it as me hitting rock bottom. So by that logic, since I'm single now, unemployment can only be half as devastating this time around. I survived unemployment the first time around by playing Super Mario Galaxy all the way through. This was my entertainment, opposed to going out with friends. I lived off of cans of soup and whatever else I could get on the cheap. The days were spent trying to find a job back in the film industry but that proved fruitless so eventually I ended back doing IT work. I became anti-social not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Hanging out with friends usually leads to spending money. It was a miserable time to say the least.

This time around will be much more different, not because I have a huge savings waiting for me or because I'm going to be reckless with my credit cards. I don't have any crazy plans to go backpack through Europe or hit up grad school, and I have no plans to move back in with my parents. I know I will have to put a lot of my future plans on hold, but there are always going to be things that force you to put the future on hold anyways. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise. It's not good to live too much in the future and being unemployed really forces you to take a close look at the present. It's a time where all you can do is look inward, since the hustle and bustle of the work grind is no longer there to distract you.

For me, I'm just going to revel in the fact that, for the first time in 16 years, I'll be able to enjoy my lunch and go outside for recess.