The Economic Environment

The Economic Environment has mostly affected me in a positive manner. Despite the recession, my husband and I were fortunate enough to have been offered jobs in our hometown community. Mine was a newly created position, which is not common in times like today. Accepting these jobs was almost a scary thing for us because we gave up 2 secure, great jobs that offered us wonderful benefits. Giving up something that we were happy doing, to move on to something else, in which we were uncertain as to what the future would hold for us was scary. We ultimately decided that we were going to make the move home eventually, so we might as well do it when all the stars were aligning for us. It has proven to be a great move financially.

We were aware that the housing economy was ideal for buyers, so we began looking for an adequate house that would meet all of our initial needs - big enough to eventually start a family, nice enough that we would not have to spend a lot of money or TIME fixing it up, but still affordable. We found what we thought was a perfect house for us. It was priced a little higher than we thought we could afford, but luckily the owners came down a little for us. We might even stay here for the rest of our lives. As we were going through the buying process, we were told by our realtor that we qualified for the federal stimulus bill for first-time home owners. Of course we were very excited about this and have been saving the money we got from the bill to do a few renovations to our house.

Like I mentioned previously, my job at the hospital is newly created. When I hear of people getting laid off from jobs that they have had from years it makes me feel very fortunate. Most businesses have not had the luxury to add new positions during this economy. Since I began this job, I have been offered promotions and raises that I feel unworthy for. Honestly, over the past year, if I didn't already know that the economy was in poor condition, I would have no reason to believe it because I have not felt many effects from it.

My first job as a Nutrition Counselor at a YMCA proved to be a very tough one in such an economy. The poor economy, among many other obstacles faced, proved to be too big of a challenge to hold any long-term goals at the YMCA. I thought this type of setting would be the best fit for me, but since I have found that I excel much more in different settings. This is one example of how the economy negatively impacted me.

I look around the community and at friends and family and see how the economy has added stress to their lives. One of the ladies at my church sobbed all through Sunday School a few weeks ago and she said money was just so tight in her house. She said her house was falling apart and she had been out of a job for several months. She and her husband have 2 children. I can only imagine the stress they must have been feeling. The awesome thing about this story is that she applied for a job in my department and she was the right candidate for the job! She now has great benefits and better hours than she has had in her past jobs. Her kids are loving that she is home more with this job. I am so happy that a job in my department is going to be such a blessing for her and her family!

I have given a presentation at the local food pantry and am getting to know the food pantry manager and the statistics she gave me on how many people are utilizing the services provided at the food pantry. It made me very sad. My husband and I plan on making a donation to the pantry some time soon. Of course the donation given will not feed very many people, but hopefully it will be far stretched! Since I moved back to this community, I have been asked to give presentations throughout the community. I hope that people will continue to ask me to do this. I can hopefully provide insight to members of the community on how to stretch their food dollar and how they can do this and still eat nutritious foods. The food pantry is planning on starting a community garden. I hope that this will be an opportunity for me to be used more in the community also.