My initial reaction to being laid off was shock and confusion.
I was pissed. I was scared. The uncertainty ahead of me felt overwhelming. The thought of redoing my resume, filling out applications, and going through interviews again sent my anxiety into overdrive.
I was making the most money I’d ever made—but I was still under six figures. And with a family of six, three dogs, and inflation driving up the cost of everything, it was barely enough. We were already struggling financially, living paycheck to paycheck.
My wife had been a stay-at-home mom for 10 years and was only working part-time. I kept asking myself:
How am I going to provide for my kids?
What happens when our health insurance runs out at the end of the month?
My wife has a pre-existing condition. Her medication alone, without insurance, costs over $3,000 a month. That’s more than our mortgage. What if one of our kids needed medical care? What if something unexpected happened?
And then there were our dogs. Two of them are large and go through food fast. I found myself asking:
What if I can’t afford to feed them? Will I have to give them away?
I know people have mixed opinions on pets—but to me, they’re family. The thought of not having them in our home was crushing.
All of these fears and worst-case scenarios just kept piling up. So much self-doubt crept in. I was still carrying the emotional weight from my last job—the stress, the burnout, the feeling of being stuck. And now I was facing it all over again.
Every time I looked at job listings, I saw requirements I couldn’t meet. No degree. No certifications. I felt like I wasn’t enough.
I fell into a depression deeper than anything I’d experienced before.