{"id":99,"date":"2025-07-01T23:19:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T23:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/?p=99"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:23:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T00:23:38","slug":"quick-life-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/quick-life-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Life Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re halfway through 2025, and it genuinely feels as though it had\u00a0<em>just<\/em> started&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Some people reading this know that I was employed at Chick-fil-A in August 2024. I&#8217;ve met many chill coworkers, I learned a lot of valuable skills, and it has continued to be a rewarding experience since then.<\/p>\n<p>Or at least, until a certain point. I guess I&#8217;ll let the cat out of the bag: I got fired back in May!<\/p>\n<p>My reaction?<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 1200px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-99-1\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/blog_cestlavie.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/blog_cestlavie.mp4\">https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/blog_cestlavie.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><em>(&#8230;which in English, loosely translates to &#8220;it is what it is&#8221;, and also doubles as the title of a catchy &#8220;so-bad-it&#8217;s-good&#8221; song by some Irish band. Incidentally, I seem to have put on a few pounds.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I kept that sensitive life update under wraps for multiple personal reasons, but I eventually figured that I might as well let anyone who&#8217;s reading this via Facebook know for the sake of transparency and of catharsis. Instead of pointless ramblings about my mentally complex thoughts about the situation, I&#8217;ll cut to the chase: I&#8217;m still grateful for the time there, and I viewed the overall thing as a learning experience to maintain an attitude towards such life events that stays respectful, humble, and professional. (Perhaps my next job should be writing fluff for corporate documents.)<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, another valuable reminder to myself is that near-<em>everyone<\/em> goes through setbacks like this. Mariah has been graciously helping me through the semi-unemployed life in the meantime before I find something else, but I did find myself having to deal with the consequences, such as the first time missing a credit card payment. The ability to accept from a helping hand is by no means guaranteed, and I always aim to be grateful for it.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&#8230;In more positive news, I <em>did<\/em> get to revisit my hometown of DeLand earlier that month! Mariah and I had scheduled a weekend to visit my parents at my former home as a late birthday celebration, and my parents did their best to make us feel welcome, and I got to reconnect with some nostalgic landmarks. I can&#8217;t speak for her, but I can also attest that Mariah was pleasantly surprised by the overall area. We managed to work in a visit to Boston Coffeehouse, which was where our first in-person meetup started before long-distance eventually became not-so-long-distance.<\/p>\n<p>The cats were happy to see us too:<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 838px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/OwsFvqGa.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"848\" height=\"636\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ignore how much of a mess I had their counter in this shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Above all, I&#8217;ll get through this. As I continue to submit more job applications and net a few interviews, I know I have a good support group behind me, and I also appreciate the astoundingly gracious offer to continue remote work for my former church. Above all else&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It is what it is!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"http:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/quick-life-update\/\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re halfway through 2025, and it genuinely feels as though it had\u00a0just started&#8230; Some people reading this know that I was employed at Chick-fil-A in August 2024. I&#8217;ve met many chill coworkers, I learned a lot of valuable skills, and it has continued to be a rewarding experience since then. Or at least, until a &#8230; <a title=\"Quick Life Update\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/quick-life-update\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Quick Life Update\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregoryryankramer.art\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}