…and so I’m not homeless, but it’s still an adventure.

I’m not homeless, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. I’m working on trying to find new work, both freelance work as well as maybe something on the side, at least, to help stabilize me.

Even if I did go homeless, hope is not lost. I will remain optimistic, of course.

But, isn’t life really an adventure if you look at it the right way? And what does next month hold? I don’t know! But I’m excited to find out. I’m hoping to get some new clients.

At church I was blessed financially today. No, I did not ask for money or anything. But I did let the church family know of my situation.

For me, it’s important to have my church family there. I don’t know what I’d do without them. God does provide, I believe. Sometimes, we are his hands. I want to be a blessing to others once I find myself in a position where I’m more prosperous again.

Anyway, I’m getting the business cards out. Tomorrow, I plan on getting on a bus and visiting small businesses around, giving out my business card.

Here’s the mistake a lot of web designers make, and I have made; many of us, when starting out, have a tendency to look online only. Well, that’s not exactly the way it’ll work in reality. If you want good clients and plenty of them, you have to get out of your box and network with people. You have to go to the businesses and make it happen. Not everyone is checking Craig’s List and other sites to look for a web designer every day. For a lot of people, they may want a website but it may just be in the back of their minds right now. When you hand them that business card, it comes to the forefront of their minds.

By the way, Craig’s List is not the best place to find web design work.

Not moving out just yet.

Things have worked out for me to stay here a bit longer. So, we shall see what happens now.

Well, I’ve got a place to stay for a month (unofficially)

One of my clients, Michael, may have a place for me to stay for a month. This will be confirmed in the morning.

This is great news, as it was going to be difficult otherwise. Nothing else was working out.

Partial checklist…

Business Cards…check
Packed bags…almost
Box of stuff to give away because you can’t take it with you…working on it
Creative brain…check
Sense of adventure…check
Optimism…check
Laptop computer…check
First place to stay…nothing yet.

I’m almost ready.

So, I’m not alone in this journey!

While searching the web, I found another homeless web designer. This man planned it out, and probably planned things out a bit more in advance than I have. This man is in Zimbabwe, so a bit far from here.

But hey, I won’t have to be a beggar. Let’s rock this journey!

This blog isn’t about negativity, nor am I asking for help!

So I gave the URL for this blog for a few friends.

It seems as if most of them freaked out a little. They were saying “Oh, no, you’re going to be homeless? What are you going to do?” and “Hey, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know!”.

Well, I should mention that I already have some friends working on helping me. But the point of this blog isn’t to ask for help, but to tell a story. I want it to be a positive story. I’ve hit some bumps along the way, but I believe things can turn around. And so I’m blogging, in order to tell the story of this eventual turn-around.

Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the adventure, even while it appears things are crashing down all around me!

And so I’m out on an adventure…

I have to be out of my place by this Saturday. “This sucks”, “What the #*&!”, “This shouldn’t be happening to someone who graduated as one of the top students in his class in college” and “What am I going to do?”. All these things and more would be my reaction to the situation, but I’ve decided to look at this as an adventure.

You see, early last year, I had a full time job as a junior web developer at a real estate marketing company called 1ParkPlace. I had it for 4 months after leaving Vons, a grocery store I had been working at for two years. Four months into my new job, they let a lot of us go, and I was one of the first to go from the production team. That was the first disappointment.

I decided that, rather than go back to the grocery store and get my job back, I would find freelance work. And find freelance work I did. It was rough at first, and then I started finding work. It was great, but the work has not been consistent. Towards December and Janaruy, I found myself being threatened with homelessness.

I had filled out some applications in the meantime. I realized I needed something to stabilize me. I had an interview at an Albertsons grocery store near me. I figured “This is great! I’ll get the job with no problem!”

Nope!

You work a junior web development job that you left another grocery store for, for a whole four months, and suddently, you have a new label on you; OVERQUALIFIED!

This is a good thing in a way, because it truly means that maybe you won’t have to go back to that kind of job. But, it sucks because it can be quite a pain getting into a better job. And I was willing to commit a year to Albertsons at least. It wasn’t like I was going to bail on them at the first full time web design/development opportunity. I even told them that. But I guess they felt it was a lie. It wasn’t. But how would they know?

And so my quest goes on! I’ll be out this Saturday and rather than looking at this as a problem, I will be looking at it as more of an adventure! And an adventure it shall be! Couch surfing, maybe traveling to other cities, and whatnot! I could possibly visit some good friends up in Redding, too, given the opportunity!

I invite you to join me in my journeys here on this blog! I’ll make it fun, and you won’t regret it! The homeless bit, that’s only temporary. But the entire journey will be marvelous!