Losing a job can bring financial uncertainty, stress and questions about what comes next. However, a 27-year-old woman living in Canada has shared how being laid off eventually forced her to rethink her career, identity and the kind of life she wanted to build.
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Taking to Instagram, Semini Kulathilake shared a video reflecting on her experience nearly 10 months after losing her job.
‘How the hell am I going to survive?’
“Let’s talk about the perks of getting laid off. Yes, I said perks. Okay, hear me out before you come for me,” she began.
Kulathilake recalled that her first reaction was far from positive. “When I first got laid off, I was terrified, I was confused, and I started questioning my whole life,” she said, adding that her immediate concern was, “How the hell am I going to survive?”
She said she was living in one of Canada’s most expensive cities, had bills and responsibilities, and was preparing to get married when her regular income disappeared overnight.
With time, however, she began looking at the experience differently.
“For the first time in years, I actually had the time to ask myself, ‘What do I want to do in life, and what do I want my life to look like?’” she said.
Kulathilake explained that while working a nine-to-five job, much of her energy had gone towards targets, responsibilities and her team. The layoff, she said, pushed her out of the professional “box” she had created for herself.
‘Building an income stream’
Since losing her job, Kulathilake said she has had time to get married, travel to Sri Lanka and India, meet her in-laws and spend time with family.
She also decided to work towards “building an income stream that no one is going to be able to snatch away from me through an email”.
Clarifying that she was not romanticising unemployment, she said, “I would never have chosen it, trust me.” However, she added that something she once feared would derail her life may have pushed her towards building the life she had wanted for years.
In the caption, Kulathilake described herself as a “27-year-old laid-off immigrant living in Canada” and said she was still job hunting. “Maybe the layoff wasn’t the opportunity. Maybe it was the push I needed to finally create one,” she wrote.
She later added in the comments, “After all, getting laid off was a blessing in disguise.”
Watch the clip here:
How did social media react?
The post drew several reactions from users who related to her perspective. One person wrote, “This is such a refreshing way to look at it.” Another commented, “Losing a job is scary, but it can also bring clarity.” A third said, “A layoff can be a reset you never planned for,” while another simply agreed, writing, “This is true.”
(Also read: ‘I’m slowly killing my own career’: 35-year-old cybersecurity professional fears staying in comfortable job too long)
HT.com has reached out to the user for her comments, and the copy will be updated once her response is received.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
