Next Step Slightly Forward

Given our current financial state, my wife and I do not have the time and resources for me to poke around for a dream job.

Thankfully, after adding up the numbers, we've realized that in order for us to balance our monthly budget and get the ball rolling on saving some money and eliminating debt, I don't need to be making an incredibly large amount of money. It looks like [realistically] I only need to be making at least net $15,000 a year.

Fast food jobs are easy to snatch than others, for a few reasons. I learned today that as far as food/service jobs go, pizza delivery is actually not too bad. Including tips, glassdoor.com reports that the average pizza guy makes between $18,000 - $20,000 a year. But here is the flip side to that. After doing some basic research on this job, I learned that there are risks. Apparently, pizza guys are in one of the top 10 dangerous jobs in America. If you think about it, this make sense. What if you have to deliver a pizza to the house of a total creep? What if he tries to rob your cash purse at knife point? What if they have vicious dogs? Furthermore, this occupation requires a great deal of driving which means the chance percentage of a wreck occurring will significantly increase.

But here is the question I must ask myself. If Pizza Hut(for example) were the only app/resume that gave me a callback, would I be willing to do the job? Would I be willing to do what it takes to get out of debt and do what is right for my family?


That's a hard question to answer for some...but funny how when the need is great, suddenly the dirty, stressful or more dangerous jobs don't seem so bad anymore. If anything, this whole financial crisis we've reached has been teaching me that sometimes I have to stop measuring the risks and just take what I get. I'm not saying that being cautious or thoughtful is a bad thing, it's just that sometimes life requires you to suspend your reservations so that you can step out of mere survival.

I hope that is what I'm doing. And when I say hope, it is a devastating hope. It is the kind that is inevitable, unavoidable, where you have to hope because those are the only bullets you have left to fire.
2 years ago, I never saw myself as a future pizza guy. I had a lot of dreams and ambitions and delivering pizzas wasn't one of them. But now things have changed...no, I don't want to live the rest of my life as a pizza guy, but maybe, just maybe, if this app/resume works out I can go up from there.

At 5:30 I had band rehearsal. As it was getting started, my wife's boss called me. She needs someone to do basic IT work around the office...and she wanted to offer me the job. It's hard to say no to opportunity. It may or may not be a job that will meet all our financial needs, I don't know the hours or demand yet. But it's a start. I have to start somewhere.

We have until friday to pay our electric bill. Unfortunately, pay day is monday. We payed a mortgage payment today which gives us a little more breathing room with our lender. Crunch time again. Today I put out multiple apps/resumes and tomorrow I will likely do the same, to everything from computer tech jobs to flipping burgers to cleaning toilets.
Tomorrow night we go to a life group meeting with fellow church members...which I'm certain will be some much needed encouragement for us.


I think what I'm most afraid of in all of this isn't the work or the difficulty, balancing the hours with the family or even the sacrifices which must be made. Rather, I think I am just afraid of failing.

Hmm...that's quite a thought. I think I'll close with that.