Ya Gotta Have Heart!

I've had two competing songs in my head today, the last day of my employment. The second one, ascendant at the moment, should be familiar to anyone who was ever watched the old tv series Hee Haw, voluntarily or otherwise:

Doom, despair, and agony on me.
Deep dark depression, excessive misery.
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.
Doom, despair, and agony on me.

Y'know, I worked for Worldwide Travel for 12 years. Then, accounting degree in figurative hand, I went to work for First Magnus, which suddenly went belly-up 27 months later as part of the mortgage crisis. Since then I've worked two temporary positions, separated by a permanent position that wasn't. And now even Worldwide Travel has shut down. Each of these has taken a toll on my confidence, even though I know I didn't personally cause the travel, mortgage and recreational vehicle industries to crash and burn, or gas prices to rise, or create this recession some people don't want to admit exists.

(Interestingly, a poll on one of my job sites shows 49.58% of people saying the economy will improve if a Democrat is elected, with just over half as many saying the same about a Republican. The rest think it either will improve or won't improve regardless of the election results.)

Job Seeker Survey

Will the presidential election improve the American economy and job market?

Thanks for taking this survey
Yes, if a Republican President is elected		(26.25%)
Yes, if a Democrat President is elected		(49.58%)
Yes, it will improve regardless of who is elected		(10.00%)
No, there will be no improvement		(14.17%)

So yes, I know that times are tough, and this isn't my fault. But I was up for a permanent job and didn't get it from one temp employer, and had to take a pay cut from the other (and no, I'm not going to tell you about it). And although more than a few executives left Famous Vehicle Dealer before my departure, I was the first person "laid off" as such in my particular department. (My boss had resigned, and one peer had just been fired outright.) And suddenly the good employee who had worked for one company for 12 years, had gone back and gotten her degree, who seemed to be in such demand, is an aging temp who has had so many jobs in the past two and a half years that any job lasting longer than nine months has fallen off the job application I filled out tonight for one of the recruiters.

Yes, my self-confidence is at low ebb at the moment. But there's another song in my head, fighting to get me back on track:

You've gotta have heart!
All you really need is heart!
When the odds are sayin' you'll never win,
That's when the grin should start!
You've gotta have hope!
Mustn't sit around and mope.
Nuthin' half as bad as it may appear,
Wait'll next year and hope.

When your luck is battin' zero,
Get your chin up off the floor.
Mister, you can be a hero.
You can open any door.
There's nothin' to it, but to do it.

You've gotta have heart!
Miles and miles and miles of heart!
Oh, it's fine to be a genius of course!
But keep that ol' horse before the cart!
First you've got to have heart!

Yeah. I think I'll go with that one.

Ready for my interview? That grin, starting.

Karen