I sit around all day and watch Ellen and Dr. Oz.
This is good for my character development and my health. I’m a huge fan of Dr. Oz — if more Americans listened to him, we wouldn’t be so fat.
Why are one-third of American youth obese, anyway? It can’t just be the high fructose corn syrup and GMO wheat.
I suspect it’s unemployment.
Sitting around all day, watching soaps and snacking, can’t be healthy.
Kathleen Kenna: unemployed counselor, writer
Being jobless is my new weight loss plan: I’ve dropped more than 20 lbs.
I try to stay healthy because I’m ineligible for health insurance in the richest country on earth. (I have a “pre-existing condition” known as disability-as- a-result-of-war-wounds, so insurance firms have rejected me).
So, I exercise. Mostly hiking, uphill both ways, through the woods. (We have 20 miles of trails near our Oregon apartment; see those lovely trees in the photo?)
For the past two years, I followed my own advice as a rehabilitation counselor: “Looking for work is a full-time job.”
When I’m not submitting online applications, paying for university transcripts, paying for background checks, and more, I write.
It’s therapeutic.
It pays some bills. It doesn’t pay the rent.
How I returned to journalism, after a bomb tried to end it
Blame it on a panda.
Saw a news clip about the first baby panda being born at the San Diego Zoo, and figured that would make a good story.
Called a friend at my old paper — I left journalism after the Afghanistan bomb attack — and he agreed to take a short bit.
Followed the pregnant panda; did a follow-up story when the baby was born.
Became a travel writer.
This satisfies my passion for discovering new places and people.
It also allows me to work with my husband, freelance photographer Hadi Dadashian.
The pay isn’t great, but the fringe benefits — priceless.
I was a political journalist most of my life, so “been there, done that.” (Covered the White House, Congress, the United Nations; worked overseas; covered the Afghanistan war …. )
I’m focusing more on public policy — the environment, social justice, disability issues.
Tough to sell anything on disability, however.
As one of my closest friends, a social worker, says, “No one cares about the disabled in a recession.”
I do.
I am — I was — I hope to be again — a rehabilitation counselor.
My specialty? The one for which I’ve had post-graduate, clinical training, and four years of experience?
Working with Iraq and Afghanistan “wounded warriors”, especially those with TBI (traumatic brain injury) and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).
Can’t be any jobs in that field in this country, surely.
hireyourneighbor 