When Bad Events Put You on a Better Path

I think everyone at some point in their life will utter the words "Why me?" It's really not a matter of feeling sorry for ourselves, it's just that quite often we are surprised by a sudden negative turn of events. Some of these negative turns of events may be hard to recover from. Some may even bring about depression or serious anxiety. I have experienced this myself but on a number of occasions, things actually worked out for the better for me, in the end.

One example was when I had gotten laid off from one of my jobs. I had gotten laid off before but with this particular job it was different. I had actually liked this job. It was the first job I had gotten after I graduated from the Dover Business College Computer Electronics Technician Course. I had even graduated at the top of my class.

You see, prior to going to school for computers, I had worked a number of horrible jobs. I went from one terrible job to another. Since I didn't have an education beyond a high school diploma, it was difficult to find a really good job. So I eventually went to school to study computers.

After I had graduated, I figured that now that I have a skill in a field that was growing in demand, the likelihood of me getting laid off from a job was slim. Then I got my first computer related job as a computer technician. I really liked the job. In fact, I loved the job and it was the first job I ever had that I felt that way about.

Unfortunately, the company I was working for was bought up by another one. They moved production to another state and eventually laid everyone off. I was one of the first ones to go since I was one of the newest hires. This was a tough blow for me and I was very depressed over the loss of this job. I had lost jobs due to layoffs before but I never took it this bad before.

I am a musician. While I worked that job I just referred to, I had read about a local open mic in the local newspaper. I had considered going to it and performing but it was during the week and I didn't really want to stay out until 2 or 3 in the morning and then have to get up a couple of hours later to go to work. But, since I had just gotten laid off, I no longer had an excuse, so I went to it.

Prior to going to that open mic, I had only performed in front of an audience as a guitar player. I had never sung in front of an audience. I decided to give it a try. So I played my acoustic guitar and sang. The response from the crowd was great and it was an excellent source of encouragement for me.

After that positive experience, I decided to learn more material and to return each week to the open mic and play the material I was learning. eventually I had enough material to start playing out for money. I began to make money by playing steady gigs. This is something I probably would not have gotten around to do had it not been for the fact that I had gotten laid off from what I thought was a great job. I got another job anyway. But after I got that new job, I was also making extra money playing out.

Unfortunately, I had gotten laid off from that job also, after about a year and a half. So I decided to try to do my own local arts related magazine. It would cover mostly the local music scene but other things as well, like the local theater and local poets and artists as well.

Things did not work out. We had only two issues that had gone to print and then things went south. So I had to once again get a job working for someone else. In fact, I had to get a job in such a hurry that I was willing to take just about anything.

But during the time I was doing the magazine, I had started a website. When the magazine failed, I took much of the content that was in it and posted it on my website. Originally, I had someone else doing it since I didn't really know how at the time. He started gouging me so I decided to do the website myself.

I eventually learned how to do websites fairly well and I ended up creating a lot of my own websites. I even started to make a great deal of money from them. So here I was working a regular job, performing as a musician on weekends and making money from my websites. Not bad, if you ask me.

I eventually learned a few things as a result of branching out in various areas from the things I had come to learn. I became somewhat familiar with various graphics programs from doing the websites and became confident enough to try new things like 3D art programs and various animation programs.

You see, all of the things I ended up learning how to do occurred as a result of something bad happening to me that placed me on a new path that led to better things. Not everything bad that happens to you is totally one hundred percent bad. Sometimes some good may come from those things. Sometimes you have to look and see if there are new opportunities you could explore now that you have been moved off of an old path. Maybe you can find a new path to follow that will lead to new or better opportunities.

I have been fortunate enough to have been able to find some positive things as a result of those terrible things that had happened to me over the years. I hope that I may continue to be able to do that and I also hope that new opportunities or maybe even better opportunities are presented to me. Hey, stranger things have been known to happen. I now look forward to exploring new paths.