Summer in Transition

Yes as a Bolder Boomer I too was victim to the economic downturn and the now current 10% unemployment rate in the U.S. Having lost my job in April, with a cutback at Experian Marketing I was able to take the time to do some things that I have been wanting to do for quite a while and American job vacation mentality of 2 weeks does not afford most of us. 3 weeks after losing my job I was on an airplane to Bangkok, Thailand for a 6 week stay in SE Asia, primarily in Myanmar. Having that kind of time to BE there was so important as life moves at a totally different pace there. The pace of life is what we have lost ahold of in our driven pursuit of more more more in this culture. Our pace is hectic, rushed, cramming too much into to little time and so time bound we rarely ge the opportunity to just BE, a real downside to our cutural affluence which is driven by material ownership and less by ownership of your own time and consciousness.

So I have returned to spend this lovely summer in Boulder in transition looking for employment in jobs in my profession, internet marketing and media. Fortunately there has been a huge redirection of interest from traditional media and advertising to the internet and I am afforded the good fortune of having a background that seems well suited for the new media space having spent the last dozen years in various roles in interactive marketing and media. Fortunately too I have an ever growing acquisitiveness for new ideas and new media has been a great place to learn about how the communities and communications that the web affords in real time interaction has changed all our lives. Most boomers are just beginning to understand what Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn and a variety of social platforms do and how to use them but they are experimenting and the more you experiment the bigger the hook into these areas. I turned a friend on to Facebook and he uploaded all his photos of his family and kids, invited friends and mentioned to me a few weeks later..."Hey this Facebook is great but it seems to be taking over my life." Balance in all things. That is the toughest direction to strike. Our culture and the speed at which we communicate and interact over the internet does not seem to let us control the Balance as much as we would like.

So this wonderful summer has given me an opportunity to just appreciate summer while I spend several hours a day online and on the phone talking with companies about jobs and learning about each company and their space, goals and how I would fit into them. I feel fortunate that 12 years ago I made a move that was not "safe" and jumped into the internet eCommerce pool. The swimming has been exciting, challenging, stimulating and definitely an every present source of learning. I would recommend it.