Duers know anybody that has dropped out of the workforce?

[ladyVet]

18. Truthfully? Me.

I've been out of work since 2008. Never got one single interview for any level of job I applied for (can't even remember how many). My timing was so perfect that the week I left my job, with many, many prospects, the job market fell to pieces, and suddenly there was nothing.

Unlike some of you, I have no real skills or education. And the jobs market is really weird. Many types of work I can do, now require a BS degree and three to five years experience. What jobs might those be, you ask? File clerks. Yeah. Answering phones. Duh.

I'm going to kickstart my writing career in 2014. The last two years have been hard, with my mother and then my father getting sick. This year really bit me hard in the ass, and I basically shut down doing much of anything. Even got in a major funk and pulled what I'd managed to get published down.

But, as I say every year: "Next year will be better." It never is, but I can't give up. I'm too damned stubborn.