Tomorrow is my son's birthday, his 19th birthday.
Goodness, I can remember when I could pick him up with one hand.
He is now almost as tall as I am, he is skinny as a rail, and he is about to embark on a journey that is the most important thing that he has done in his entire life.
And that journey will lead him into finding a full-time job, an occupation, a career.
He has been fairly lucky thus far.
After graduating from high school several weeks ago, he went right into his summer job, working for a local camp as a "video game expert."
So he basically went right from ending his formal education to a summer job, but that ends today, as the camp ends it 2014 summer schedule.
So beginning today at about 4 p.m., my son--shown here with my daughter, his beautiful sister--is unemployed, but it goes beyond that.
As I have told you, he has a learning disability and ADD, and these things make strange bedfellows, we have found, when one is searching for a job.
He has put in numerous applications for work, he has gone online to apply for jobs, but so far, the only thing he has to show for it is one single interview, which didn't lead to employment.
I am in the process of trying to get him into various programs that can help him, including, and most prominently, Medicaid.
Once he gets into Medicaid, there are an array of programs he can use to help him find employment, but we have found that it is not easy to get Medicaid.
In fact, we have been put through the wringer on this.
We have had to fill out form after form after form, go for various interviews--we have another one next Thursday--and it has been hell.
He can get other programs without Medicaid, but he cannot get the majority of these programs without getting Medicaid one way or the other, so it has been tough to say the least.
But through it all, he has been resilient, wants to work, and is never thwarted in trying again.
But he does ask me, "When will I get a job?" and honestly, I have no answer for him.
We will push on as a team, myself, him and my wife, and between the three of us, maybe something will turn up.
I think in the end, it will all turn out fine, but my wife and I do ask ourselves about what our son is going to do in the interim, and we don't have any ready answers.
He will continue to look on his own, hope the programs that he can get will help him, but like I have told him many times, the first job is the toughest job to get, and it certainly has been for him.
But being that as it may, happy birthday to the greatest son a parent could have, a kid who has never given up hope anytime throughout his soon to be 19 years about anything.
He will make it, and you will find out when he does.
Speak to you again on Monday.
Tell him to hold out hope. Maybe volunteer at something he LOVES to do and have him pursue his passions when he's waiting for a job that will sap his soul. Really. A volunteer position and some training will go along way to getting a job doing what he loves to do. Then it's not a job...it's a joy.
ReplyDeleteGood response. He has done some volunteer work, so it isn't out of the ordinary that he would do it again. Let's see what happens this week, and he has some job testing coming up in September, so hopefully he will be on the right path in a few weeks. In the meantime, he has put out lots of resumes, so maybe something will come up out of the blue.
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