It’s that time of year again. I think it starts with the back to school commercials for Staples and Target. School reminds those of us on skid row and in Debtors Prison that time really is passing and not in a good way. For the chronically unemployed August is when you start looking for and filling out applications for jobs to be sent the Tuesday after Labor Day. This will be my third Tuesday after Labor Day of Unemployment. The first one I sent out 100 applications sure I would get my pick of jobs. Last year I sent out 300 sure I would get a job. This year I will send out 500 sure licking envelopes on materials that still need to be mailed will dry out my throat. Debtors Prison is like San Diego: weather is always the same. Unemployment has seasons and I would say the beginning of the “unemployed year” is August 1st.

The year begins in August when you organize all of the random tips you’ve gotten over the summer and merge that with your inner family circle which you try and contact at least once every six months. Then Super Tuesday, then waiting. Fleeting hope quickly turns to fear and anxiety over (another) unemployed holiday season as the hours of daylight per day slowly countdown to T-day and C-day and countless questions from friends and family.

The second week of January marks another great deluge of applications again meant to coincide with the aftermath of a time where most people in the position to hire are on vacation. Residual depression stifles the initial hope leading to a blessed period of apathy that starts around February. You become jaded and you are used to the cold and darkness. This is when one is most likely to find a job, the way most people do, simply by being in the right place at the right time. You get a few solid leads that slowly fizzle out.  You are told by your last real prospect to apply again in the fall. The summer brings it’s own mini-adventures and catastrophes that are highly individualized. At some point during all that you look up and realize it’s August and the process starts all over again.  The only thing that’s changed is that you’re a year older and with more student debt in the form of interest and penalties.