Brett Dills

Why 2009 Cannot Be Over Soon Enough October 4, 2009

I should have known it was going to be a bad year when I woke up on New Year’s day sick to my stomach. I spent the entire day either in the bathroom or lying in bed. It was clearly a harbinger of things to come.

I have to say, without a doubt, that 2009 has been the worst year of my life. The scary thing is that there are three more months to go. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Highlights of my year, so far:

February: My wife loses her job. Luckily, she finds something a few weeks later. Later that month, I managed to, on consecutive weekends, severely sprain both my left knee and my right ankle. On one very special day I had the following happen: Walk into work to find out my salary was cut 10 percent, had x-rays on my ankle, and I received a bill from the IRS for $1800. My ankle didn’t feel right until May and was able to settle with the IRS for a lot less than $1800. It was not a fun time and it was downhill from there.

June: My Dad was diagnosed with inoperable esophageal cancer that has spread to his liver. He began chemotherapy a few weeks later. Fortunately, he is responding well to treatment, but the cancer is considered incurable.

July: I lost my job. I will write about this more in later posts. Needless to say, depression has followed and my financial future is on shaky ground.

A friend of mine suggested I keep a record of this time, as both therapy for myself, and to share my experiences with others. I am not doing this to have people feel sorry for me. I don’t feel sorry for myself. It is my hope that this blog will be cathartic for me. I am not sure what this blog will morph into. I have a feeling some days I will write a lot and some days I won’t or even at all.

Career-wise, I think I will be better off in the long run. I had advanced about as far as I could at my company, the environment there had become fairly unpleasant, and the prospect of doing something else is both exciting and scary at the same time. I am just not sure what “something else” will be. I have met with a lot of friends and colleagues to help me figure out what I want to do going forward. I have also done a lot of soul-searching and self-analysis during this time. I have a few ideas I am pursuing, but I think this whole process is going to take time.

The only benefit of losing my job is that I am able to spend a lot more time with my Dad. A friend of mine said that this maybe the reason I was meant to lose my job. I am not particularly a religious person, and I usually don’t believe there is divine influence over things that happen in life. But, I think he made a good point and at some point I will look back and be glad I had this time with my Dad.

My friends and family have been great through all of this. I don’t think I could get through this without their support and I will be forever grateful. I have heard that you learn who your real friends are when times get tough. This could not be more true.

So, there it is. 2009 is my Annus Horribilis. And 2010 cannot get here soon enough.