Heaven is a mobile home

Over the summer I wrote several times (maybe not here but certainly on Facebook) about my frustrations and failings in life- specifically in the arena of employment Really, though, it was all-around a difficult summer.  A difficult summer coming directly off the heels of a previous difficult summer, fraught with opportunity after opportunity falling through and... well, to say there wasn't a lot of hope would be like saying the Tigers kind of swept the Yankees to advance to the World Series (possibly a shameless ploy to justify labels to increase blog traffic).

So I feel like now, after a whirlwind month that has witnessed some changes and what I feel are significant steps forward, I owe it to those who stood beside me and held me up, hoped for me, prayed for me, encouraged me, and believed in me- I owe it to them to write about the good stuff, too. 

One month and one day ago, I was sitting home sick and watching some television when I got a call to come in for an interview.  One thing led to another, and one month and one day later I have a honest-to-goodness job in social work.  Score!  Oh yeah, and also after spending five months of living under someone elses roof, Sara and I signed a year lease for a mobile home (with 3 bedrooms to boot!).  For the first time in years, life doesn't feel like a piece of Saran wrap stretched tight over my face.

It's been quite a journey over the past couple of years.  Right after graduation, I took a job (ironically enough, at the same place that I work now although the experience is already 100% completely different) that drove me into the most pervasive and destructive pit of emotional despair that I have ever been in.  I spent about three months hating life and feeling like I could never be whole again.

It's taken a few years, but things are heading in the right direction.  I'm enjoying my job so far.  It's been challenging- but it's a good challenging, the type of challenge that brings growth and development.  As opposed to the challenging of the last few years, which was more about the challenge of trying to survive. 

I'm not naive enough to think that my entry level social work position and trailer park living signify any sort of "arrival".  But after a couple years of questioning whether I could fulfill the promise that my education seemed to tease and wondering if we'd spend forever cashing in bottles to prevent bounced checks and using loose change to buy a Hot-N-Ready for dinner, we've found stability.  A little stability.  But it's stability, and for us, a little stability feels like heaven.

Even if that heaven exists in a trailer park.