By Matthew Hartmann
My name is Matthew Hartmann and like countless others, I had to make the tough choice to move home after college. I earned my MA in Communication from Hawaii Pacific University in 2012 and found myself faced with an undeniable truth. Despite thinking that the job market would have recovered enough for me to get a full time communications job if I attended graduate school, this was not to be. Instead, I found myself without any work coming my way so I made the fateful decision to return home and do the job search from there.
It’s been a year since graduation and aside from a brief period of employment during a political campaign, the only money coming in right now is from my freelance writing. I love being my own boss and to be honest if I can make it work, I would gladly focus solely on my business. My family is very supportive of me and I do what I can to help out around the house along with helping fill the gas tank and pay a bill or two when I get a significant contract completed.
It feels weird being where I am and I am bummed that the days where a person could complete school and expect a career launched immediately has been put to the way side. Though I believe in the American Dream that states I should have already been able to get things going, I don’t get mad about it, as getting mad about my situation won’t make things better.
The only alternative I have is to be a good adult son by calmly explaining to my family what I’m doing and how these actions will help me improve my life in the long term. There’s still occasional friction about me being here but I have been able to bring money in to help my parents out. And I know my parents want things to get better for me and our relationship is good because of it. I’ve never had a very antagonistic relationship with them thankfully so it’s been relatively easy for us to set expectations and boundaries on our relationship as far as me living at home goes.
Still, I can’t wait until I finally have a place to call my own. Until that day comes I’ll be working hard at getting myself launched by getting myself published more often so that I can obtain that name recognition that is essential to working as a writer.