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I am now approximately 21 days into the sad state of affairs that is life unemployed. When employed full-time, one always hopes for the days of sleeping in, having no obligations, and just doing whatever you want. 21 days later and I still haven't done that.

After allowing myself about 2 hours to cry, wallow in self-pity, and just all around feel bad about what was thrown at me, I immediately jumped back on the horse and started the job hunt. Three weeks later and I feel like I can confidently say these are the pros and cons of unemployment:

Pros:

- You still maintain a schedule. A day in the life looks like this: wake up, eat breakfast, prep for phone interview, have phone interview, head to coffee shop to apply for more jobs, schedule phone interview for next day. And repeat. Who says unemployment is boring? I know exactly how my days are going to go like clockwork now.
- You become an expert on talking about yourself. My resume is pretty much memorized at this point and I can answer the, "So what are you looking for?" question in my sleep. Having 4-6 phone interviews a week (plus any in-persons that you're lucky enough to get) has you talking about yourself, a lot.

- You lose weight. In 20 days I have officially lost 6 lbs. It might not seem like a lot, but it is for someone who usually only fluctuates up and down 2 lbs - or up a lot more. It could have to do with not being bored at my desk all day, so not snacking. Or having no money, so never going out to do anything involving food or alcohol. But let's just say it's because I have time now to "work out more".

- You contribute more in non-financial ways. Who ever would have thought that I would enjoy doing laundry, washing dishes, and cooking dinner? Not me, but alas this is now my life. Being unemployed means that there is no excuse of "being too tired" to help out around the house -- and at least I feel like I'm contributing someway now!

Cons:

- You lose human contact. For sure top of the list is this con. I never thought I would be so desperate for human interaction. The extent of human contact that I have throughout the day is giving my tea order to the barista. It's gotten to the point that I use phone interviews for "catching up" with people.

- You hate talking about yourself. Naturally with becoming an expert on talking about yourself comes hating talking about yourself. Sure I think I'm qualified, but it's becoming a struggle to walk you through "what's gotten [me] to this point".

- You're poor. #preach This one is rough. Thank the Lord I'm married and my husband loves me enough that he didn't divorce me the moment I texted him, two months into our marriage, telling him he is now the sole bread winner. The whole "it's our money" becomes even harder to digest when you really aren't contributing to it at all.

- Unemployment insurance is not easy. I'm not sure why I had this vision in my mind of unemployed individuals, sitting on the couch eating Doritos, living life in luxury. The State really makes it difficult to collect unemployment.

While I have certainly enjoyed learning more about myself, and the system, the last few weeks, we can only hope that unemployed life won't last too much longer. My only advice is to never take anything for granted (and start a savings account ASAP if you don't have one!), because you never know when things will change!