Wow. Well, I think the headline says it all really. I have been offered a job.

My hard work, perseverance and determination have all finally paid off to where I am torn between crying in relief or dancing around my room in excitement. Technically I have already done the crying, so I guess once I kick this flu thingy, the dancing will also take place.

It has been a long journey to get to this point. So much has happened in the last, almost, two years since I graduated from AUT with my diploma.

I have hit rock bottom more times than I can remember with my depression, but I have fought the whole way and come out on the other side with a very tame black dog as my shadow. I say shadow, because he will always be there with me, where ever I go in life.

It was needing to tame this black dog, which is why I took some time off after uni. I am all the better for it. Through all of this, the events of the last two years have been a roller coaster ride, which I have survived.

Our family felt the full impact of the Christchurch earthquakes, with my sister and brother-in-law experiencing it all and still doing so. I even felt a few myself in a trip down last October. I got a job and lost that job. I gained a Man Piece, who has supported me in my search for a job and helped me in the taming of the black dog. I lost my Grandfather, which has been a huge change to my family. I’ve struggled with job rejection after job rejection. I’ve looked after my mother while she was in and out of hospital for surgery and needed someone to administer medications.

There are most likely more things that have happened that I haven’t listed, but I’m just not thinking of them right now.

I can finally put down some roots and stop living out of a suitcase going back and forth between my parents and Man Piece. Obviously this means that Man Piece and I will be doing the long distance thing again, but we will work that out.

A big thank you needs to go to everyone who has supported me and told me to keep following my dreams, who have listened to me rant and moan and still stuck by me throughout this journey. Without that support, I would have given up (even though there were a few times that I almost did.)

So today, I end my journey of the #lifeoftheunemployed and enter the gainfully employed.

Tonight I am going out for dinner with my parents to celebrate, possibly have a drink (although I probably shouldn’t ’cause of the antibiotics) and breathe a huge sigh or relief for beating the odds.

So as my Granddad used to say in times like this, “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid!”

Oh, and cause I can’t do a happy dance, here is Neil Patrick Harris doing one for me. I guess I should tell you where it is too – I am to be a journalist at Pharmacy Today in Auckland.