This is part of an ongoing series of articles about being employed or unemployed in today’s economy. We are sharing real stories of struggles and accomplishments, as well as advice on what others can do to make it out in the real world. Read more articles from our writers series on The Vine.

When The Melon’s editor told us about a writer’s series on the struggles to find employment, I thought, “um, yeah. I have a thing or two to say about that.” I have been looking for a job since I graduated college in 2007. I have applied for what I would estimate to be well over 500 jobs. Then, three days after the email about the writer’s series, something unprecedented happened: I was offered a job.

Now, there are two clarifications I need to make. First, I have not been unemployed this whole time. I have just retained the same (excruciatingly painful) job as a salon manager I’ve had since Freshman year of college. As much as I hated this job, I cannot even imagine what I would have done without it. To those people that have faced unemployment, my heart breaks for you. My experience with menial wages has been bad enough.

Clarification #2: although I am sincerely grateful for this new employment, with a great company that I’m sure will afford me many possibilities, the position I am taking has absolutely nothing to do with the degree earned in college.

That degree is a Bachelor’s in Journalism from Eastern Washington University. I worked hard for that degree. Graduated with nearly a 4.0. Put myself into debt for that degree. Was passionate about that degree. However that degree, I can’t help but feel, is completely useless.

In my college classes we had discussions about ”the changing face of journalism;” the move to the Internet, the rise of the blogger, etc. But to my recollection there was never a discussion that the field already had one foot in the grave. That seasoned, talented journalists were being let go, and that we would be competing with these veteran journalists for entry-level positions. So when I graduated wide-eyed and ready to take on the world, I abruptly had the wind knocked out of me. Not only were positions to apply for scarce to say the least, they were basically just a race for a rejection letter.

But that was just Spokane, I told myself. My hometown was small. Only one major newspaper, one alternative paper, not much else. Small market, of course I won’t find a job here. So I transferred my job to Seattle and headed west to the big city. Shortly after, The Seattle P-I went out of print. Seattle was now a one-paper town like Spokane. Hmm. Time for a change of tactic… I’ll do marketing writing instead! Copywriting or something. Easy.

Or not. More brick walls. More unreturned calls. More unfortunate “Dear Candidate” letters.

And so on and so forth. Each time I “lowered” my standards for employment, thinking it would be only a matter of time until I received an offer, I was met with disappointment. It began to wear on my self-confidence that a resume with a Bachelor’s and management experience couldn’t even get me an interview for simple administrative work.

*Author’s note: If you are on a diet, and do not have iron-clad determination, stop reading.*

Photo thanks to Pie, Cupcake Royale and Full Tilt

There are many hard-hitting, thought-provoking, whistle-blowing, tough as nails journalistic pieces out there…this is not one of those pieces.

This is about all things joyous. All things wondrous. All things splendid. All things, sweet.

Our delicious tour of sugary goodness begins with one of my favorite treats; pie. At an establishment aptly named Pie, in the heart of the Fremont neighborhood. Pie specializes in personal-size, all hand-made confections using only fresh and natural ingredients, including a delicious hand-made flakey crust.

“We make our pies in small batches all day long, so what you see on the menu in the morning may be different than what you see by evening time,” said Jess Whitsitt, co-owner of Pie. The changing Pie menu does not only include sweets, however; it also includes “savory” pies – think of pot pie, but WAY better.

“We have many interesting savory pie creations: Pork Pot Sticker Pot Pie, Spaghetti with Meatballs Pie and Swedish Meatball with roasted potatoes and Lingonberry Sauce Pie, to name a few,” said Whitsitt, “but English Meat and BBQ Pulled Pork are our most popular.”

However since we are talking about all things sweet, you can find that at Pie too – patron’s favorite creations include Coconut Cream, Berry Awesome and my favorite, Peanut Butter and Jelly Pie. Even better, Pie has a late night window from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. “We get a lot of families the first hour and then we get the fun people who have been out at the bars in Fremont after that, or just folks from the neighborhood who have a late night craving,” said Whitsitt.

If you prefer cake to pie, cupcakes in fact, then you can pop over to one of Cupcake Royale’s many Seattle locations for a Dance Party Holly Hobbie, Royale with Cheese or President Obama’s favorite, the Salted Caramel.

Cupcake flavors range from lavender to bacon, and their interesting arrangements has earned them national attention, appearing on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network last month.

“We were asked each year they ran Cupcake Wars and finally we made the show. I think we came across the most culinarily professional, and perhaps the least crafty-craft. Which is cool, because we’re all about the taste and doing cool things with interesting ingredients,” said Jody Hall, Founder of Cupcake Royale.

Whatever ingredients Cupcake Royale chooses (including for their unique “Cupcake of the Month” – be sure to make it in before the end of September to try the Huckleberry Cupcake), ingredients are always kept local. “Cupcake Royale thinks local is always the best way to go. By investing in our friends and neighbors, we’re making an investment in our community,” said Hall.

It’s Cupcake Royale’s investment in community and creativity in sweet perfection and that allows them to thrive in an ever-growing cupcake market. Said Hall, “We know that there are other delicious cupcakes out there. We’ve tried many of them. In the nearly eight years since we first opened, we were the first cupcake bakery to open outside of NYC, many cupcake bakeries have opened. But what has always set Cupcake Royale apart is our focus on nostalgic style and taste, real and local and organic ingredients when possible, our community settings (mall-free since 2003!), and our philanthropy. We donate over 40,000 cupcake annually to help small local businesses raise funds, and just recently, we created a special ‘The Gay’ cupcake and were able to donate $10,000 to the It Gets Better Project.”

The final stop on this Tour de Sweet is in a part of town you might not expect sugary goodness: Rat City (also known as the White Center neighborhood in West Seattle) at Full Tilt Ice Cream. You want hand-made artisan ice cream in pleasantly unexpected concoctions? They got it. You want classic arcade games like Wack-a-Gator and Skee-Ball? They got it. You want to hear some live music? They got it. Heck, you want a BEER to go with your ice cream? They got that too!

With locations also in Columbia City and the U-District, Full Tilt strives to not only indulge your sweet tooth, but provide events to bring neighbors together. “We have everything from political potlucks, bike repair classes, to punk rock shows. I think they are very important to our communities where there is very little in the way of safe, all ages places,” said Justin Cline, owner of Full Tilt, “We are also launching a record label, and a co-op kitchen in the south end.”

But even with all their events, Full Tilt still finds time to create an ever-changing variety of ice cream flavors. “Salted Caramel is most popular by far. Next is Ube,” said Cline. “We do a peanut butter banana and chocolate covered bacon flavor that we have dubbed The Memphis King. We also did a flavor recently with Chapulines, which are dry roasted grasshoppers from Oaxaca.”

I might be skipping the grasshoppers, but on my last visit I enjoyed a sorbet that tasted exactly like a grape popsicle, while my friends had Maui Coffee Porter Beer floats. How good is their ice cream? To quote a post from the Full Tilt Facebook page, “Our White Center store closed at 7 tonight. We sold out of ice cream. Thanks for the amazing day.”

I could keep going on about all the deliciousness Seattle has to offer (I didn’t even get to touch on the donut bliss of Mighty-O or Top Pot, or the magic of Theo’s Chocolate Factory, or…), but I can feel myself slipping into a sucrose coma. So I beckon all readers to don your stretchy pants and join the legions of out-of-towners, out-of-country-ers, and especially locals, who always have these three sweet champions on their “to-eat” list.

Where I was on September 11, 2001, is unremarkable. I was doing what anyone of my age (and time zone) was doing – preparing for another day as a Junior in high school. I spooned some Cheerios, changed outfits three times, and waited for my friend Meg to arrive so that we could drive to school together as we always did.

That morning I had not had TV or radio on, so when Meg called and said a plane had hit a building in New York City, I was confused, but unfazed. Meg would be here soon, we could talk about it then.

Arriving at school, everyone was buzzing. It was in first period Biology that I got my first look at the events that had unfolded. Around that time, we watched live as the second plane hit the South Tower.

Silence. Hands covering mouths. Shock. Tears running down cheeks.

Even as naive 16-year-olds, we knew this was not an accident. President Bush soon confirmed what we knew: the nation was under attack.

Through all six class periods, no coursework was done. Televisions were on in every classroom. While teachers tried to explain and comfort their pupils, it was easy to see they too were trying to grapple with their own emotions and form an understanding. Lunchtime, usually a raucous, carefree event, was solemn. Quiet discussions amongst tables.

I arrived back home without a word, and silently joined my family who were holding hands watching the television. A discussion followed that evening, but produced few answers. As my father correctly predicted, “this will be the most important event of your lifetime, Myronda.”

Ten years passed, and many of my peers were sent to faraway places to fight a war that was conceived on that September day. Some did not come back. It pains me to think that today, some of our combat soldiers were 8-years-old on September 11. Do they even remember the day that sparked the battle they are fighting?

My story, along with many others, of where I was on September 11, 2001, is painfully average. Uninteresting. Nothing special. But all of us had nearly every aspect of our lives changed as a result of that day; from the way we travel, to the economy we faced as we reached adulthood, to the way we treat each other. One of my friends of Jordanian descent hung his head in my art class in the days following the attack. Some of his friends and peers had turned on him. Of all of the events that had conspired, this, to me, was the most difficult of all to understand.

We came of age in a country that changed overnight. A heated political climate, a call for vengeance, a divide, a coming together. We are the ones about to take the helm of a world that was shaped when we were not even eligible to vote. To this point, all of our experiences, then and now, while seemingly average, are in fact extraordinary.

The Mona Lisa of headstands

Savasana (also known as Corpse Pose, or as I call it, “nap time”) has always been my favorite part of yoga. It’s the time at the end of practice where one aims to relax the body and quiet the mind while laying restfully on the back. Practicing Savasana here, underneath the warm, elusive Seattle sun, softly swaying on the waters of Shilshole Bay off the coast of Ballard, is pure bliss.

I, along with five others, have just completed an hour of yoga on the two-by-10 foot surface of a stand up paddleboard, referred to as “SUPs”. Our instructor, Hasna Atry, guided us not only through an array of postures, but also through the basic ins-and-outs of stand up paddleboarding. Even the novices like me who had never even set eyes on one had to make the roughly two-thirds mile round trip paddle to our yoga spot.

Surf Ballard has quickly become the buzz of Seattle as the only spot offering this new adaption of the widely practiced workout. Hasna, who has quite the perfect yoga name, has been teaching small classes on the water just since this May and on dry land for two years. While more “temperature friendly” spots such as Hawaii and California already have SUP yoga classes in place, it was Hasna’s friendship with Surf Ballard’s co-owner Andrew Drake that brought SUP yoga, now called WASUP, to the Pacific Northwest.
“Because of my connection with Andrew, I could just take out boards whenever I wanted and was practicing yoga on them, and I was like maybe the rest of the world wants to have fun with me too! So the creation of it was really organic,” said Hasna. “But I’m still playing with [the practice], just figuring out what is accessible and doable on the paddleboard. I’m exploring.”

The sessions she began conducting mostly with friends and family were noticed by the blog My Ballard, and quickly picked up by King 5 and The Seattle Times. Shortly after WASUP experienced a surge of success with a Living Social offer of three classes for $30 (thanks to a thoughtful boyfriend I am part of that surge).

As only a recreational yoga practitioner, meaning I do it whenever it strikes my lazy fancy, I was concerned about my ability to combine it with an unstable surface on top of very chilly waters. But Hasna makes it quite clear that poses can be taken only as far as is comfortable to each individual student, making it appealing to both newbies and yogis alike.

For example, Hasna, not surprisingly after seeing her grace and agility on the SUP, executed a headstand on the board, where as I was more than happy to stay in the prep position. “The people that are doing it sometimes have an established practice in yoga, sometimes not and are just willing to feel it out and meet themselves exactly where they are. So I find people not getting too frustrated with themselves, sort of being able to laugh it off and say, ‘I can’t do that yet, but that’s ok.’”

However Hasna says there are a few connective threads she sees in her students: “They are people that are adventurous, have good amount of confidence in their body awareness, and are hardy. So like, on rainier days people are still showing up, like, ‘give me a hat, I’ll still go out,’ or ‘give me a wetsuit and let’s go do this.’”

“Did you fall in?” everyone asks. No, I didn’t (though I surely would have had I attempted that headstand!), and neither did anyone in the two sessions I’ve been to so far, but Hasna says you have to leave yourself open to the possibility it may happen. “People always ask me how often someone falls in and I never have an answer,” she said, “I would say it happens less often than it does happen. But it does happen.”

While I managed to stay dry, I did not escape the next-day soreness. The strength required by your core just to stay balanced and the energy exerted by your shoulders to paddle is a workout in itself, and when coupled with Hasna’s fully encompassing yoga practice I was left reaching for some Advil (in a good way, of course!)

Individual two-hour classes are $23, which is excellent considering that just a two-hour SUP rental at Surf Ballard is $30. “I tried really hard to make it affordable for people so they can gain a practice out of it, instead of coming once and saying ‘yeah, that was cool, but I can’t afford it,’” said Hasna. “To me the value of more people being able to access this practice is important.” For more information and to register for a class (Hurry! They book up FAST), visit wasupyoga.com. Namaste.