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On St. Patrick’s Day weekend, 2023, I closed on my first house, attended my two daughters’ first ballet, and went to their dad’s funeral — all in the same weekend.
Two months later, I was laid off and stuck in a town I likely would have left under different circumstances.
While I did consider moving, I was living in my newly purchased home with three grieving kids. Uprooting them would be too many life changes, and I had no equity in my home anyway. So, I stayed and picked up the pieces.
I found my dream job, but it wasn’t meant to be
Two years earlier, in 2021, my marriage to my children’s father went south, and I moved to a small, cornfield town in Illinois for grad school.
I was lucky enough to find a funded master’s program with a teaching assistantship. Between the small stipend my program offered and my side hustle as a freelance journalist and content writer, I was able to keep the bills paid and live a modest yet comfortable life with my kids.
For my last semester, I only needed one course. So, in preparation to fill my time, I decided to job hunt the preceding fall and, amazingly, found my dream job as a director at a local domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center, managing the prevention education and marketing staff.
A few months into the job, my intuition told me to buy a house. Interest rates were going up, and so was the rent. I had a steady income stream now, and the cost of living was low in my area. So I got prequalified for a mortgage and found a 100-year-old farmhouse in a walkable neighborhood in town.
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Then, everything happened at once.
Courtesy of Nia Springer-Norris
Halfway through my home contract, my ex died suddenly. My girls’ ballet and my home closing were scheduled for the same weekend as the funeral. Within four days, I closed on the house, attended the ballet, and then went to the wake and funeral.
Two months later, my position was eliminated, and I was let go. It wasn’t clear exactly why, but I suspect it had something to do with the 50% cut in federal funding my organization anticipated.
I had to stay and make it work, so I applied for lots of jobs
I applied to jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed, but didn’t have any luck. After a while, I started focusing more on getting a job than finding the job, keeping an open mind, and applying for roles that I felt I would be qualified for.
I soon had two offers: One for a supervisor position at my public library’s tech desk and one for a marketing job at a consulting firm, which was part time, remote, and paid twice as much. I took the latter.
Because I was able to work this job part time and the hourly rate was high, I was able to freelance consistently. I ended up making more than I would have working the full time nonprofit gig, and the schedule was better. In 2024, I wrote over 40 feature articles.
That same year, my oldest entered first grade, my middle daughter was entering kindergarten, and my youngest had one more year of preschool. My hours worked with the school schedule, and I haven’t worked 9-5 since.
Life is better now
Courtesy of Nia Springer-Norris
Last fall, I was offered a job teaching in the communication studies department, where I got my MA. I now teach journalism, web development, and other communication courses, and I still write for magazines.
Working at the consulting firm, I learned a lot about marketing and design, as well as many of the skills needed to operate a business. Then I learned how to code while I was teaching web development, staying two weeks ahead of my students.
To leverage the upskilling I’d done, I expanded the service offerings of my LLC and rebranded as a creative agency to offer web development, marketing consulting, and instructional design. Last year, my independent employment made up nearly half of my income, and I was able to use my summer vacation this year to keep the momentum going for the web development side of the business.
I work very hard, but I have the flexibility to pick up my kids from school every day and be on the board of our Parent Teacher Organization. Connecting with other parents has also helped me develop my own support system and friendships that are meaningful and satisfying.
There were many times that I considered packing up and moving back to Pittsburgh, where my family lives. I even applied to Ph.D. programs outside Illinois, but didn’t get in. So, for now, we’ll stay put.
We live in a wonderful neighborhood and are within a few blocks of many of my kids’ friends — across the street from the very first park we went to in town, our place for fresh starts. And we haven’t just started. We’ve grown.
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