I was laid off abruptly two months ago. It was a foreign situation to me; I had always lined up a bigger and better position. I was a bit like a fish out of wat

I was laid off abruptly two months ago. It was a foreign situation to me; I had always lined up a bigger and better position. I was a bit like a fish out of water: filing for unemployment, sprucing up the resume, going to all the job boards. With a mortgage and a 14 month old, it was constantly on my mind. They gave me two months' severance, so that plus our emergency fund took a little of the heat off. I landed a job that, while not an immediate step up, has room for growth. What was nice was the extra time I had after say a half day of hitting the job boards and applying, to take my daughter to the park or help out with errands. In the evenings, I was able to focus on getting my latest game released on the app stores, which launched right before I started the new job. While I wouldn't want to repeat that scenario for a while, I'm grateful for it. It really opened up the possibilities of where I wanted to move next (career-wise and location-wise).