Harry Kazianis: Coronavirus unemployment crisis — here's how I lost it all, still got through Great Recession
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The numbers are beyond shocking: nearly 10 million Americans — the equivalent of the combined populations of New York City and Philadelphia — have filed for unemployment benefits in just the last two weeks.
What’s even more shocking: Depending on how you do the math, that is more jobs than were lost in the entire Great Recession — and it took until 2014 to recover.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I remember that recession well. It wiped out my life savings, destroyed my career, forced me to close my small business and led me into a deep depression. I not only felt crushed, but worthless as if I didn't deserve my friends, my family, even my marriage. It was a time that had me wondering if I had anything left to offer as a human being. What was the point of it all if I had no function anymore?
I worry for those who might experience similar feelings now. Added to their economic burdens is this unseen enemy we are all fighting. For the moment, it may seem as if their lives have lost any meaning, that their best days are behind them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In response, let me offer this based on my own experience: you're wrong.
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Despite my despair during the Great Recession, feeling the odds stacked against me, I came out of that experience not only with my life intact but achieving every dream I thought possible.
My story out of the darkness began when I realized my old career in the telecommunications industry was eventually going to end. My salary was slashed in half, health benefits were getting cut back and I was working longer and longer hours for less and less. I knew if I waited too long that my position within a few years would be eliminated or downgraded to such an extent I would not be able to survive.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}That's when I started thinking through my options. I knew I had to fundamentally transform the way I thought about my situation. I couldn't just sit and wait for the worst to happen. Instead, I realized that it was time to pull out all of the stops, to do whatever I needed to do to make it.
During those dark days, it was prayer and faith that gave me that extra bit of hope that I could soldier on.
That meant I needed to find a new career, something that I loved and that I could dedicate all of my heart and soul to.
I always wanted a career in national security analysis but never dreamed I measured up, always thinking I was never good enough or didn't have anything to offer. But at a certain point, knowing that my old career and way of life was over, necessity dictated that I had to try.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And that’s when the miracle happened. I finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Rhode Island in political science and history – something I had foolishly quit nearly a decade before. But, at 28, I went back to college full time, while working 60 hours a week.
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Next, I went on to graduate school full-time – still working full-time still and also somehow juggling multiple internships. The days were long, the nights even longer. There were long stretches where sleep — any sleep — was a blessing. But I knew, someday, my hard work would pay off.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And then there was my own reconnection to God and Christianity. When I was a child, I was very much a non-believer, locked into the idea that there was no such thing as God and that faith was just a word that lacked meaning in an age of technology and science. But during those dark days, it was prayer and faith that gave me that extra bit of hope that I could soldier on. At times, all I had was faith, the belief that someone higher would provide that little bit of courage I needed to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Finally, there was kindness. I can’t tell you how many people opened doors for me that I did not deserve or even ask for. Finally, thanks to a combination of hard work, faith, luck and dedication, I graduated and now run a research program at a think tank founded by President Richard Nixon.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I couldn't know it at the time but those darkest of days were a struggle I believe I was destined to endure, making me the man I am today.
The days ahead will be difficult. Our families, our communities, and our nation must first combat this pandemic and then start to recover from the economic disaster that follows in its wake. While the days ahead may look bleak, I know that as individuals and as a country we can confront and defeat these challenges.