My Unemployed Life: Just Let Me Teach Again, Please?

My name is Amanda, I am 30 years old and for the last 18 months I have been unemployed. In my previous life, the one where I had a job with great benefits, I was a high-school English teacher.

I taught for six years, blissfully unaware of just what happens when you lose the stability of a paycheck. I lost my job due to cutbacks. No one told me that the recession would affect the entire nation, especially my state of Michigan, so profoundly. My school district was in a deep financial hole and when that happens, teachers lose their jobs. And I lost mine.