"Funemployment"

I remember first encountering the term "funemployed" in a piece by Amelie Gillette, who writes a brilliant little column for the Onion AV Club called The Hater. Essentially, Gillette picks a piece of pop culture that's particularly deplorable and dissects it in the most delightfully sarcastic way possible. Sometimes, she strays to news articles, and the trends reported within. This was the case with funemployment.

Funemployment is exactly as it sounds: the state in which a jobless person thoroughly enjoys their time off. They spend their nest egg on a trip overseas, pick up a new hobby, that kind of thing. Really, if you're going to be unemployed, you might as well attempt to enjoy that time. But to apply such a name on it makes it seem as though they're wholly satisfied with their jobless state. As such, I cannot claim that I am funemployed. I'm unemployed, but I don't revel in it.

I itch for something to do. I freelance write. I work on my grad school application. I apply for at least one job a week, jobs at which I know I'd excel, jobs that would provide a daily routine--jobs that would, at the very least, occupy my time. For me, unemployment is the pause button on a completely typical existence. Sure, I have social outlets, books to read, jigsaw puzzles to assemble, shows to watch, meals to eat, et cetera, et cetera.

Today, for the first time in a while, a building block toward a real schedule, combined with a massive change in my life, surfaced. I spoke with a representative at Simmons College about a graduate program in children's literature and library science and was, for the first time, truly excited about this new opportunity rather than (as the AV Club would put it) cautiously optimistic.

Even if I don't get in, this is something I can invest in, and that's pretty important right now.

So, there we have it. Midna's leaning against me, it's Thursday TV Night, I'm going to Chicago tomorrow, and my mood is ever rising. Funemployment? No. Simply happiness, that's all.