Hey there, friends. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted, but I see a lot of you dropping in and poking around the page. Thank you for that. Much love to you, my gracious readers.

I’ve been on an odyssey that was thankfully short-term, but it’s kept me from regularity here at “Roads Lesser Traveled.” You see, I work full-time in the mortgage title industry. Or I did until last Monday. Yet now I am again, a week later. I have a few friends here at WordPress who’ve been in the real estate business and y’all know the deal. It’s one of the most cyclical industries to work in. Building a career for the long haul toward retirement…um, yeah. When mortgages are hot, we’re running with our keisters on fire. Title companies, mortgage brokers, realtors and lenders hire high in those fruitful, stressful times. They also drop personnel when the business dries up as it does and has of late with the Fed hiking interest rates in response to this confounded inflation and ludicrously priced houses from sellers looking to drop their junk as-is for a tidy profit.

Nobody outside the business ever thinks of it, but all of this high-fallutin’ gouging and rate spikes displaces people in my profession in droves. I’ve been laid off in the mortgage title industry so many times I’ve had to develop a sixth sense for when it’s about to come and when to get my ducks in a row. The scariest moment of my entire life came when the local foster care agency brought a six-month-old baby into our lives. I fell in love with that child upon sight and knew he would become my son. The day after, a title company I worked at 14 years ago laid me off, even knowing this child was coming to us. Frightened beyond comprehension I was responsible for a new life I’d signed up to foster then adopt, I was on the horn immediately after I packed up. I had resumes faxed within hours of layoff. I went after it with desperation and hunger. I had a new job the day afterwards.

It’s how I’ve approached my life, be it in title work, music journalism, writing or any job I’ve held. When the sources dry up and I’ve found myself on the streets, I’m already networking and pounding resumes before I even file the unemployment claim.

As it was this time and because of my outreach through social media and because I projected gratitude instead of angst toward an employer who’d been forced into an unfavorable business decision, I found a veritable army of friends, family, business compadres, recruiters, people I’d graduated high school with. The support I received made me emotional enough to record a few videos for my social media as people phoned me, emailed me, texted me, rallied for me with reposts and forwards and sharing of my resume. It only took a couple of interviews to weather, and I was proud to announce my new position yesterday with a close to home title company with reputable standing (and an enviable pipeline of work) in its local industry.

It truly is about who you know in life. The rest is up to your wherewithal. Fight for yourself if you find yourself downsized. Never take your network granted. In fact, build it bigger in organic fashion with each new venue you find yourself a part of. Take a layoff on the chin with grace, but never take it personal. Exercise in the mornings to calibrate your body before your mind. The achievements from working out creates a positive, can-do mindset for tackling your days spent in search of work. Above all, believe in yourself. I’ve said in a prior post, we all matter, so GO GET IT!!!

Thank you all, readers, for continuing to support my writing and this blog. I will be making efforts to resume activity here and to visit you all on your pages as well. It may be slow as I get acclimated to my new digs, but I’m here, friends. I’ll see you, sooner than later…

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.