I was recently laid off.

It sucks. First, I have never been laid off before. Second, I have been employed since I was 15 and I have always known what my next step is. So this is the first time in almost 15 years where I am kind of afloat. Guess what? Its scary. Scary and kind of exciting.

My first thoughts were “shit, this is a bad market,” “this is going to set my house purchase goal back a bunch,” and “omg, what if I can’t afford to have kids when I want them?!” Yes, lots of totally reasonable leaps  of logic in all of that. Then I was kind of angry, then I was depressed. All the stages of grief. Now I’m figuring out what my future will be. In the mean time, I get to catch up on my sleep. I can go to the gym whenever I want, I’ve enrolled in unlimited hot yoga at Hollywood Market, and I’m offering some pro bono legal services to people because I didn’t have time to do so before. I’m deep cleaning my house, room by room. I probably have a month of projects left. At least I won’t be too tired to go to Christmas parties this year.

And I’m been very, very lucky to have great friends who are supporting me through all of this. If anything this is a great lesson in chilling out, being thankful, and probably learning more empathy along the way.