Reality can bite

I read an article the other day about GenXers. I am a member of generation X (Reality Bites!!), so I was interested to read an article entitled: 10 Ways Generation X is Hosed (Jason Notte, MSN Money).

I was curious, am I really hosed?

True, the Great Recession hit us at a hard time, C and I had just purchased our home in 2006, and saw it's value plummet within weeks. We had decided the year before to try and get pregnant - and were successful rather quickly. After R's birth, I lost my job. Then I got sick.

So, yeah I felt a little hosed in 2009.

But, I also feel that things played out the way they did for a reason.

I got pregnant very quickly. Had a few months passed and the economic stability of our country continued to spiral downwards, I would have put a stop to the idea of adding to our family. We already had 3 kids whose college years (and tuitions) were sneaking up on us. We couldn't afford a fourth child. But, God had other plans.

So we welcomed R, and fell in love with him at once. I enjoyed my 3-month maternity leave. Our house didn't feel too small, it felt full of love and new futures and family. No hoses in sight!

Then I was told I would not be going back to my job. My employer couldn't afford to bring me back.

Completely hosed.

One week later, I found out I was sick.

Completely and utterly hosed.

But here's what was really happening. The only reason I found out I was sick, was because of swelling caused by the water weight I was still carrying around from the birth of my son. The swelling caused symptoms to present that otherwise might have gone unnoticed for weeks, or even months! Had I not gotten pregnant when I did, I may not have found out about my cancer until things were much worse.

And as for my job, well, I got to collect unemployment for 6 months, which allowed me to get surgery, get treatment and start healing, all while staying home with my little R. I got to be a stay-home mommy for 9 months rather than 3. I got to focus on healing without worrying about working.

And 6 months after losing my job due the bad economy, I was hired at a new firm, while the economy was still bad.  No hosing there!

It's hard for me to blog now without somehow connecting things back to 2009 and everything that happened during that year. It was truly the best and worst of times. And there were plenty of times then, and since, when I have felt hosed. But now when I read articles about how GenXers are supposed to be unhappy because of losing their wealth, never being able to retire, being stuck in jobs they hate, and being buried in debt. I say:

I am healthy.
I have a job I like.
I have a home.
I have a family I love living in that home.
We live within our means.
I don't feel hosed, I feel blessed.


-the good stepwitch