What Comes Next: Between Beauty and Destruction

Job loss. It’s not something that most people want to think about, whether it happens to them or not--but in modern society, it’s all too common for the words “lay off” and “company downsize” to grace a conversation about how life is going. Through an honest look at the emotions, feelings, and everyday challenges that can come with losing a job, author Heidi Barr illustrates what going through such an event is like. From disbelief to financial concerns to anxiety over the prospect of a two hour commute after ten years of working from home, this essay explores the uncertainty of not knowing what might be coming next, along with the potential for uncovering the beauty that might just be hidden under what feels like destruction.