I am "funemployed"

There is a new term for people like me: "funemployed". My friend linked an article from the LA Times chronicling the lives a few "funemployed" people. Apparently, there are people mostly around my age that have welcomed being laid off. It's a time to reconnect with friends, family, and oneself. It's also a time to travel and volunteer, to do all the things that you couldn't do when you were chained to a desk and a boss. Now, you're your own boss...until the money runs out.

While this sounds great, I can't bring myself to enjoy my forced vacation, my forced time off. Part of me feels worthless, the other parts are frustrated, annoyed, and depressed. I didn't get laid off, I went back to school. I dont' have unemployment checks coming in the mail. When the times got tough with schoolwork, we had work, career, employment to look forward to. How many times have I heard over the past two years, "screw this sh*t, I just want to work" and "I'm ready to work NOW"? Too many voices to count. Now, we've graduated and it's the worst recession since the Great Depression. So many questions and unknowns are bothering me, it's making me stressed out. What about money? What if employers don't want to hire me when the jobs come back? What if I wasted two years of my life just to end up in a job I could have gotten without a master's degree? Ugh...and the dreaded what if -- what if I really am worthless?

I must stop thinking like this but it's really hard to not take this personally. Maybe I should start a support group. Maybe I should take this blog to new heights and have a gagillion readers all commenting and commiserating with me. Maybe this could be my new job! But then, I guess the biggest question of all: What happens when the money runs out?

Maybe I am geting old. Maybe I should just lighten up. Maybe funemployment has a couple of stages and I'm just not at the "fun" stage yet. Yeah, that must be it.

How does one get past all these crappy feelings and begin enjoying funemployment?