The Stress of Moving Out

It never really occurred to me why moving out can be so stressful… until now. One too many times I still find myself moving from place to place not thinking when will this temporary living situation be a bit more permanent. It’s been over 10 years now since I left home to what I would say be on my own, except I wasn’t for the most part. I at least had a roommate for most of that time. Only in the past few years was I officially on my own and sadly enough, I kept the empty boxes and added on to those boxes. Nothing has really ever felt like home since moving out. The older I get, the more responsibilities I seem to have and that time to enjoy life just kept getting smaller and smaller. Work from one of my previous employers burnt me out where I spent the next couple of years doing absolutely nothing. And now the time has come where I’m packing my things once again…

The reason for my move this time, and this is not an easy thing to say… but it’s money. If living paycheck to paycheck wasn’t bad enough, I had to deal with car problems on top of that. It was the latest issue that sealed the deal in my moving. Even though life hasn’t quite gone my way lately, I’m not mad about it. The way I see it, this is a new chapter in my life. Sometimes you have to take that step back before soaring forward through the skies (I know, that was a bit cheesy).

What makes this stressful is how even after I had to give my 30 days’ notice that I’m leaving my apartment, I still find myself not taking action. Hardly anything has been packed up and my 30 days are almost up. And I’m starting to feel it. But maybe it’s just because I’m tired of doing this so often, and so many times. And just like every other time, I do have items I tend to sell and donate.

This move will be quite painful for me. I may have to leave one of the jobs I work at, and I really do love it. I love the people I work with, and it’s been such a joy. You know you have it well when work doesn’t feel like work. And unless I’m willing to commute almost an hour just for a part-time job, I don’t know if that’s worth it. Especially with my car running the way it has been. Well, whatever I decide to do, no matter what happens, I will look at this as a new chapter in my journey. Life may not be easy, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get to live it!

Gossip Never Sleeps

Ah, yes. The classic saying, “Gossip never sleeps.” But why is that? Why talk about somebody behind their back in such a manner that people would see you as a bad person? The problem with that is there’s a good chance these people are the agreeable type. So, just about anything you say they will take your side. In terms; you’re not bad to them at all.

Maybe though, there are the few that will call you out on what you tell them. Which unfortunately, they will probably just end up talking about you when you’re not around to somebody else. And that’s the unfortunate cycle we live in.

Insecurities

We all come from different backgrounds. Whether good or bad, rich or poor, there’s only so much you can blame on how you were raised. Maybe it’s got something to do with being more privileged than others. Where you aren’t even aware of your actions and how you are when others aren’t even around to defend themselves.

I get it though. Most of the gossip happens when we’re younger. We honestly don’t know any better. That’s what comes with being young, you’re naive. But as we age, we learn. We learn about how terrible we were and what we said about others. Yet, I’ve witnessed even as older adults, the bad-mouthing still remains with some.

Your level of intelligence should not matter one bit. Except it’s even worse when the individual is smarter. And that’s because they know how to be more subtle about it. Your life cannot be that dull where you have the need to spice things up hoping to get a rise out of someone. If that is the highlight of your day, then I do hope that you become aware of your actions and choose to change yourself for the better.

If not… well, let’s just say I want nothing to do with you.

Put Gossip to Bed

The thing is, we all have problems in life that we have to deal with on our own, like it or not. But that doesn’t mean we can’t seek help or guidance to give us what we need to come to a decision in the choices we make.

Life just is. And because everyone is going through it, you don’t have to make someone else’s life more difficult by adding to their fire. That’s why I personally, especially in a professional setting, am kind to others. You can’t always know if somebody is having a good or bad day. The least you can do is offer them positivity.

Your actions, no matter how big or small, can pay dividends to those who need it… even if they don’t ask for it.

My First Vegas Experience

Strip club, check… welp, and that’s it for my list! Haha, almost. Not that it was planned, it did happen though. One of the first things I did there was placed a $100 bet on black (Roulette) and the plan was to let it ride a few times. So, first hundred and the ball is spinning. As it plinkos its’ way to a stop, it was black. Up 100, I knew what had to be done next. “Let it ride!” The Plinko game returns. And what do you know, winner winner, chicken dinner! Now I’m up to 400 total and this was when everything changed. I hesitated. Instead of telling the dealer to let it ride, I paused a bit longer and ended up taking 200 out leading me at +100 in which the ball landed on red. That little bit of hesitation was what probably determined if I could have left there with $800 and the strip club would have been free, or leaving with -100. But we’ll never know. Instead, I ended up spending most of my expenditures at one place, which led me to borrowing money from a friend. Oh boy! Yeah, that happened.

Other than doing a lot of walking, which was great for my Fitbit and my health, we did catch ourselves an Adam Sandler break when we needed it. There was a marathon going on, even at the hotel we stayed at before our flight in had it going on. That was pretty cool. Except for when we were waiting in the car while one of our buddies was checking us in at the hotel. I was in the middle seat and one of the guys farted and I caught a big wind of it. We had to escape from the car which in turn led to me throwing up. Yeah, that was wild. So anyway, the Vegas. On our last night there, we were playing blackjack at the ole O’Sheas. Lady luck was on my side that night. Made enough to pay back my friend and had enough to eat again. What a win for me! Came in clutch. Although, we did have to stay an extra night to do so. Our flight got cancelled from a winter storm. So, we’ll think of it as overtime.

And that, everyone, was my first Vegas experience.

Until the second time…

My Job Experiences

I couldn’t tell you how many different jobs I’ve worked at. But if I had to guess, it’s somewhere around 25-30. If it sounds like a lot, that’s because it probably is. Most of my life I have found many passions and interests in things that took little effort to building a skill to a lot of it. When I would do something that I enjoy, it typically only lasts so long before I end up losing interest in it and wanting to find something new to try. Why that is, I don’t know. That’s just who I am. Same with me playing video games. Most games with a storyline that I would play, I’ll end up stopping midway through the story. The game itself is good. It’s almost as if I don’t want to see something good come to an end? Not sure if I can say the same with my 25+ jobs though.

Manufacturing

Since graduating high school, I left my part-time job to switch to a completely different field. Something that would change my life for over the next decade. I got myself into the world of being a blue-collar worker. Knowing what I know now, there’s a lot of physical stress that the body goes through. Like one of my last jobs I had, having to do the same things over and over repetitively caused soreness on my back and shoulder blade area. That’s mostly the whole concept of factory work. It’s very repetitive. So within this decade or so, I ended up jumping around one job after another with maybe one or two non-manufacturing jobs in between there, until I hit my mid 20s. At that point, when you realize you have more responsibilities, rent and bills to pay for, you start to change your mindset to settling down. Which now writing this down as I go, is so disappointing.

I Chose To Settle

With all these extra responsibilities, I knew I could no longer continue switching from job to job. Especially working a temp position making about only $9 an hour. I had to make a decision and of all the decisions I made, I chose one of the hottest environments to settle at. This company that I worked for that I spent 8 years at did not have any sort of air conditioning on the floor. Only in the offices. The department I worked at, the machineries temperature got upwards of 500 degrees Fahrenheit. So basically with that, my areas average temperature felt like 100-110 degrees with hardly any ventilation, and a couple small industrial fans blowing hot air on us. There were countless times I sprayed my face with the water bottles we used to clean the machines at the end of our shift.

It wasn’t all bad though, I got to work with a very good crew. My boss saw something great in me, so she pretty much let me lead my own team knowing she didn’t have to micro manage us or worry. We crushed it! Beating out the other 2 shifts easily. The morale within our team was high, everyone that I know of got along great and just about every Friday mornings after work we would head to the bowling alley for drinks and bowling. It was really something special… but that moment only lasted so long. Not long later, people started quitting or transferring to different departments and nothing was the same. Eventually I left also to try my hand on something new.

About 5 years into my job and trying something different, I was on the brink of quitting my job. The department I was in wasn’t so great and half the people I worked with were somewhat sleazy. Although, some of the women I worked with enjoyed my company. Always nice to leave them laughing and smiling by just being me. But I’m the type of person that does let the few negatives outweigh the many positives. People I tell ya. They suck sometimes. How difficult it is to be short and skinny like myself and get picked on in ways that most people wouldn’t see. The haters are so subtle about it… sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.

Electronics/Engineering

So I’m about to quit but there was a new position for a new department opening up. An electronics assembly line. Where we had to wear these ESD smocks and shoes or shoe covers so we don’t emit any electricity on any circuit boards we worked with or are near. Little did I know, this position that I got was going to be both great and terrible. Again, for the most part, the people were great, my boss was great. I got to work with the engineers and understand how circuit boards come together. During training, the soldering part was pretty wild. I enjoyed that part the most. I made some friends and actually started eating healthier too!

Once we got settled in after about a year, things got worst. We were scheduled to produce numbers that were unobtainable even running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We ended up working mandatory 7 days for the foreseeable future. Which ended up lasting about 2 years or so minus most holidays, call-ins and vacations. Vacations on the other hand were mostly stripped away from me. Considering I had the 2nd lowest seniority of the team I worked with, I had almost no time to use my vacation leaving me having to work almost every weekend. I was drained, exhausted and burnt out. At this point, I hardly saw any of my friends or family, leaving me with no energy to do anything once I did finished work. I was about done. And I did so much too from what my boss had asked from me. More than what my typical job duties were. Only time we had a break was when Covid hit. It was such a needed time off. 5 weeks to be exact.

To Sum It Up

I left my job about a year after the shutdown due to Covid. Between that time, I had learned so much about myself and my surroundings. From what I would say, I got to do a little soul searching. It led me to wanting to do something different, away from factory life. I know there’s so much more out there and that I never got to experience the possibility of what I could be great at. So now that’s where I am. Back to exploring life and other jobs because currently, there are job opportunities almost everywhere right now. Doesn’t seem like anyone wants to work or maybe they have found something themselves to live a much happier and healthier life. I do have faith that someday soon I will find what it is that I’m looking for. The question is… what is it?

From my many coworkers and bosses, they really did all range from bad to great. I got to experience from both a white collar and blue collar’s perspective of what a business is like. Definitely got to talk to and get close to the many managers of my most recent job. It’s made me think… maybe I start my own business?! Only time will tell. And if I have the will-power, of course!