As many of you already know, my employer terminated my employment last Thursday. Since I was apparently officially employed until the end of the business week, I’m considering today “Day One” of my bout with unemployment. But make no mistake, I am not a statistic. I am not a victim. I’m a husband, a father, and a social media evangelist. A piece of paper from a former employer can’t change any of those things.

I’m getting ready to drop my son off at preschool, then head down to Bowling Green to Job & Family Services. With any luck, I’ll be able to secure unemployment benefits sometime in the next month or so. I’m not broke yet, but the money will run out in the next couple months. If unemployment kicks in, I can stretch that time out a bit and attempt to parlay this time off into a career in social media.

On the advice of my good friend and mentor Damian Rintelmann, I’m taking the next few weeks to continue networking. It’s my sincere hope that if people get to know me, they’ll see that I can bring something fresh to the table. Tomorrow, I’m leaving for Chicago for two days. In the evening, I’ll be attending Sarah Evans‘ launch party for Sevans Strategy. At that party, I’ll finally get to meet Brett Petersel. Brett has shared advice and connected me with  people on a number of occasions. It’ll be nice to finally have the chance to thank him in person. On Wednesday morning, I have the privilege of meeting with Leah Jones of Natiiv Arts & Media.

I have a busy week ahead of me. You’re welcome to come along for the ride. I’m going to try to document this metamorphosis as best as I can. I’ll be posting videos to Qik, tweeting updates to Twitter, and blogging here fairly often. This is about to get interesting…

Update: How… in the hell… did I forget to thank Ezra Butler?!? The man has been my most vocal supporter and a great friend throughout this whole thing. Sorry, Ez. It will not happen again.