While I did consider moving, I was living in my newly purchased home<\/a> with three grieving kids. Uprooting them would be too many life changes, and I had no equity in my home anyway. So, I stayed and picked up the pieces.<\/p>\n I found my dream job, but it wasn’t meant to be<\/p>\n Two years earlier, in 2021, my marriage to my children’s father went south, and I moved to a small, cornfield town in Illinois<\/a> for grad school.<\/p>\n I was lucky enough to find a funded master’s program with a teaching assistantship. Between the small stipend my program offered and my side hustle<\/a> as a freelance journalist and content writer, I was able to keep the bills paid and live a modest yet comfortable life with my kids.<\/p>\n For my last semester, I only needed one course. So, in preparation to fill my time, I decided to job hunt the preceding fall and, amazingly, found my dream job<\/a> as a director at a local domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center, managing the prevention education and marketing staff.<\/p>\n A few months into the job, my intuition told me to buy a house<\/a>. Interest rates were going up, and so was the rent. I had a steady income stream now, and the cost of living was low in my area. So I got prequalified for a mortgage and found a 100-year-old farmhouse in a walkable neighborhood in town.<\/p>\n Related stories<\/p>\n Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know<\/p>\n Then, everything happened at once.<\/p>\n Springer-Norris inside her new home.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Nia Springer-Norris<\/p>\n Halfway through my home contract, my ex died suddenly. My girls’ ballet and my home closing were scheduled for the same weekend as the funeral. Within four days, I closed on the house, attended the ballet, and then went to the wake and funeral.<\/p>\n Two months later, my position was eliminated, and I was let go. It wasn’t clear exactly why, but I suspect it had something to do with the 50% cut in federal funding<\/a> my organization anticipated.<\/p>\n I had to stay and make it work, so I applied for lots of jobs<\/p>\n I applied to jobs<\/a> on LinkedIn and Indeed, but didn’t have any luck. After a while, I started focusing more on getting a job than finding the job, keeping an open mind, and applying for roles that I felt I would be qualified for.<\/p>\n I soon had two offers: One for a supervisor position at my public library’s tech desk and one for a marketing job at a consulting firm, which was part time, remote, and paid twice as much. I took the latter.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/placeholder.png\")
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