The fact that Big A is still unemployed worries me every so often. To be specific, it's the money factor that I worry about should June 30th come and go without a job for him and the unemployment pay cheques end (I know, I know..that's nine whole months away but time flies). It's one of those things were weeks go by and everything is fine and you know everything will be fine and then for a week, you have odd dreams and not sleeping well. When it happens, it overshadows the excitement I have that Big A can now be whatever he wants to be. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a better option than continuing in the job that he had. I'm also happy to see that Big A realizes how few skills he has (although I'm impressed with anyone that knows all the US airport codes) and actively wants to change that. Through the continuing education program at our nearby community college, he's scheduled to learn Word and Excel (and Arabic...he still wants to work in Iraq as a translator. I'm hoping that is just a fad) next month.
For the past few weeks, I've heard about a state program called No Worker Left Behind. It's for people who aren't working (laid off, fired, quit, etc) and it pays two years of tuition to a community college or training program in a field that is in high demand. While reading a local newspaper online yesterday, there was an article about how this program isn't well known and how it should be and it included a link to the information at the state's web page. I forwarded it on to Big A and he has a date tomorrow to go in and take an assessment/skills test, which is Step 1. I'm not sure if becoming part of this program depends on the test results or if it's a generic one colleges give people when they apply after having been out of school for awhile. Either way, my fingers are crossed.
I'm now back to being excited about everything. I know in the end, whatever that may be, it will be better than what he came from. If nothing else, perhaps my new found imaginary talent of cutting out clip art heads and matching them to their proper mouths will come in handy.
2 comments:
One of my bigger regrets in life was not taking advantage of being laid off. Since I had a severance package of almost two months pay, unemployment didn't kick in until that had run out. I accepted a job the week before my first government check. I wish I had cashed in a few months of them and done some traveling before taking another job.
Go Big A! It does sound exciting to have a chance to do other things.
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