There is still a month before the Chinese New Year,
On social networks,
Many young people who went home early due to unemployment,
has quietly posted his homecoming life.
One found three such young men,
Some people claim to be yes
Returning home as an "older single unemployed woman",
was cured of the anxiety of unemployment by the gossip group in the village;
Someone came home and helped his parents sell oranges by the way,
Oranges didn't sell much,
I gained more than a dozen pounds because I escaped from the workplace;
There are also people who simply let go of the obsession of going back to the big city,
300 yuan of pocket money every month,
Anxin became a "full-time son" at home.
Here's what they had to say:
Editor: Zhang Huilan
Editor-in-charge: Ni Chujiao
▲
(The picture has nothing to do with the people in the article)
An Ran, 29 years old, from Qidong, Jiangsu, went home for 2 months
At the beginning of November last year, after losing my job, I came home as an older, single, unemployed woman who was very loser. "I can't work" and "I'm bad" are an equation for me.
My house is a small two-story building with a big yard in front of it, and the neighbors around it are my uncle, uncle, and relatives of seven aunts and eight aunts. Every morning, I put on my pajamas, find a place in the courtyard where the sun is not dazzling, and sit and scroll through my phone. As the first young man in the village to go home for the New Year, relatives and elders will definitely come to the door to talk when they see you.
▲
An Ran's yard is planted with many flowers, and she likes to bask in the sun here
They asked, "Why are you back now?" and I said I don't have a job. They began to reassure me that the environment is not good now, and it is normal that there is no work. But soon, they shifted their focus to the fact that I didn't have a partner, and I had to argue with them about why I didn't have a partner, not why I didn't have a job, which was really sad and funny.
I explained that I was busy at work, and that the meaning of life was not necessarily about the object, but they told you, no, the meaning of life must be to get married and have children.
In fact, in my creed, I have never felt that being without a partner is something to be sad about. The impact of these uncles and aunts on me is that they suddenly made me realize that life is not only about work, and it must be painful to be unemployed, but the consequences are not so serious.
Before I lost my job, my last job was as an e-commerce operator for a company A. Since the boss has just come into contact with the Internet business, the expectations for us are very high, and the work pressure is very high. After getting a verbal offer from another company, I asked this side to resign. Unexpectedly, during the handover of my resignation, the next company suddenly closed the post.
In the last two weeks of the company, I didn't have a job at hand, and every day I went online, and the voices outside were telling you that the economy was very bad this year, and the layoffs in large factories were terrible. In fact, I could also receive a reply from HR when I submitted my resume, but I didn't have the strength to interview.
In order not to let myself continue to be trapped in this mood, the day after I left my job, I took the high-speed train back to my hometown, and the reason for myself was to go home for the New Year.
While being gossiped about by these relatives and elders in the village, I will also learn about their lives in turn.
In the countryside, many people in my parents' generation actually don't have any serious work, they cut the rice in the field when they are busy, and go to work as temporary workers when they are free. In the evening, everyone walks and square dances, and in the city, I might still eat takeout in the cubicle.
They give me the feeling that if you have money, you can live with money, if you don't have money, you can't live without money, and if you don't have a job, you don't have unemployment. My mind opened up instantly, and I got out of the trough of unemployment in about a week.
▲
An Ran took a walk in the village and photographed a flock of birds
After coming back for so long, the meaning of my hometown to me has also changed.
When I used to work in Nanjing, I always felt that my hometown was just an embellishment after I returned home. You see I have a job, I can earn money, I can afford to buy my own house, and I can say that the future is bright. My plan at that time was to buy a house in a town or a small county town and plant flowers and grass after achieving financial freedom.
But now, if I don't have to repay the monthly mortgage of more than 4,000 yuan in Nanjing, I have really considered looking for a job in my hometown. In the past, when I came back for the Chinese New Year, I stayed for five or six days, and I didn't like to go out, but this time I had the opportunity to look around, only to find that our county has also developed so well: Luckin Coffee and KFC have also opened here, and many factories also provide e-commerce and foreign trade-related jobs. All of this made me realize that going back to my hometown was a choice that I could achieve.
My plan now is to finish the year with peace of mind, and of course I will continue to submit my resume during this period. My first goal is to settle down on a job after the year, even if it is to shake milk tea, to ensure that I have a cash flow.
The second more important goal is to give myself the ability to make a living, for example, I am now preparing for the investment advisor certificate, and I also plan to make a Douyin store in the future. Because jobs are unemployed, my biggest concern is that even if I find a job, there is no guarantee that I will be able to find a job in a year or two.
▲
In December last year, Enron ushered in the first snow in his hometown
After the mentality calmed down, my state was even more stable than before I was unemployed.
I used to have a mantra of "annoyed" and "hated to die", and I used to complain about the company with my friends, but now they feel very calm when they talk to me. I will generously admit that I am unemployed at home, and those friends who are also unemployed, or who are worried about losing their jobs, are also willing to talk to me and ask me for my thoughts on side hustles.
Although most of the time I am happy, peaceful, and planned, I am also confused and anxious at times.
In the past, when I came back for the Chinese New Year, I was still a little vain, but this year I am an unemployed older unmarried young woman. Thinking that soon the "successful people" of the same age in the village will be driving luxury cars or returning with children, I sometimes regret whether it would be better to have a family, or whether it would be better to endure it at work. I'm sure I'll try to avoid social situations as much as possible.
▲
(The picture has nothing to do with the people in the article)
Qiao Xiaomei, 26 years old, from Fengjie, Chongqing, went home for 2 months
After resigning and returning to my hometown in mid-November last year, I tried many "firsts", the first time I made short videos to bring goods, the first time I smoked bacon with my parents, and the first time I gained more than 10 pounds in two months.
My hometown is Fengjie, Chongqing. After graduating from junior college in 2017, I worked in real estate sales for two years, and then switched to work as a medical representative while studying for a bachelor's degree.
In fact, the pharmaceutical industry was still good in the past few years, but in the past two years, the market has become more and more volatile, and our life has become more and more difficult. In the past, my monthly income was more than 10,000 yuan, but this year it has slowly dropped to six or seven thousand, and the company's benefits in all aspects are also declining, and more than a dozen sales have been optimized in the summer.
I had the idea of leaving my job in October last year because it was too stressful. Although the market is not good, the company's sales target was set a year ago, and the leaders will still put pressure on us. I wanted to give myself a vacation, and with the orange harvest at home this year, I thought I might be able to try my hand at the Internet, so I quit my job and went home.
I haven't lived at home for more than a decade and I'm not used to it when I first come back.
Our family is in the countryside, the mountains are steep, although it is a few kilometers away from the county seat, but the cement road is not repaired, and it takes more than half an hour to walk the mountain road to have a bus to sit, and there are not many shifts. So I've been back for so long, and I haven't been to the county seat once.
There are also about 100 families in our village, but at this time, most of the young people in the village are working outside, and most of them are grandparents. When I got bored, I got a dog as a companion. Every afternoon, I would play cards with my elders for two or three hours to kill time.
In addition to the boredom and inconvenience of life, another big problem is the gossip of neighbors and relatives. They usually show a lot of concern and ask you why you came back and how long you will stay, but behind the scenes, my grandparents have heard others say, "I heard that the girl from the Qiao family came back to sell advertisements (note: selling oranges)", a bit of a mockery. I'm definitely upset at the moment, but I don't care too much about it, because I hear too much about sales.
About half a month later, the navel oranges at home began to harvest, and I was busy, so my heart slowly calmed down.
Our family has been growing oranges since my grandfather's generation, and this year's harvest is better than usual, there should be more than 100 tons. In previous years, we will sell in the WeChat circle of friends, generally can sell three or four percent, and those that are not sold out will wait for the consequences of the year to collect, but the price is very cheap. For example, if I sell it to a fruit merchant offline for 2 yuan, I can sell it online for 5 yuan.
But this year's market is not ideal. In previous years, those who placed orders in my circle of friends to give away, this year almost all bought a little to eat by themselves, and the orders of enterprises were also much less. I also asked a lot of friends who grow oranges in the next village, those who sold a few thousand catties a day last year, and this year they are only a few hundred catties and hundreds of catties. To put it bluntly, everyone doesn't earn as much as before, and they don't want to spend money.
▲
Every day after breakfast, Qiao Xiaomei will pick fruits and pack them with her parents
In addition to the circle of friends, after returning home, I also tried to shoot short videos to promote, and also attracted some loose orders and agency cooperation, but the proportion is not very large, just a few orders a day, adding up to less than 100 pounds, and the bulk of the sales still come from the circle of friends. It is said that Douyin is doing well now, and it is basically smashed with money in the early stage. I don't have that much budget, so I should try live streaming in the future.
Although the oranges are not selling as well as expected, the pressure is still not comparable to working outside.
When I first started to do sales, I was named by the leaders at the conference site of more than 100 people because of my poor performance, and I really wanted to find a crack to drill down. Even if you get started with work later, you have to always think about how to achieve sales, and you are wrapped in an inexplicable sense of anxiety every day.
It's not the same at home, even if you don't do it well, no one will say that you, well done, that's the icing on the cake. Every night, the family eats together after being busy and jokes with each other, which is quite warm. I left home at the age of 15 to study outside, because my parents don't like to express much, and I actually didn't feel much of this warmth from home before.
Because of my regular diet, low pressure, and never growing meat, I lost more than 10 pounds in weight only two months after I left my job.
A few days ago, I smoked bacon with my parents, which is considered a New Year's gift for the Chinese New Year. I used to watch them do it when I was a kid, and this year I finally got my hands on it. We first went to the woods and cut down the cypress branches, then came back to make a clearing, put the meat on the shelves, and then set the cypress branches on fire, buried them with salt, and smoked them. When the cypress tree is burned, there is a smell of incense, and the smoke can soak this incense into the flesh.
When the bacon is smoked, the uncles and aunts in the village will sit over, and everyone will brag together, almost sitting for an afternoon, which is quite fun. It will also be very rewarding for you to make the bacon yourself.
If you want to say that the mentality of this year's New Year is different from previous years, in previous years, my parents looked forward to us going back, and now I am looking forward to my brother and sister-in-law coming back, and entertaining them as the host. As for the plan after the year, if the Internet is not done, I may still go back to work as a medical representative, but now the general environment is not good, and the salary is low, so I have to accept it.
▲
Feng Xiaoning during the North Drift
Feng Xiaoning, 30 years old, from Shenyang, Liaoning Province, returned home for 1 year and 7 months
Before returning to my hometown in Shenyang in May 2022, I spent the bleakest year of my life in Hangzhou.
At that time, I had quit my job as an advertising operator and spent most of the year making a living by reselling second-hand luxury goods in a rental house. Due to the confusion about the way out of life, I have long-term insomnia, acid reflux, half of my hair is white, I have gained more than a dozen pounds, I hardly socialize with people, and I live a life like a walking dead every day.
On Chinese New Year's Eve, the air conditioner in the rental house happened to break, and I went to McDonald's near my home to solve the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. But I couldn't tell my parents about this embarrassment, and on the phone, I told them that McDonald's was delicious, and I had bought a lot of things, and I was going to go back and go to bed early.
I didn't go back for the Spring Festival because I felt that I had to mix up and buy a house in a big city.
In 2017, I left my hometown to look for a job in Beijing and joined a major Internet company. No matter what I do, I do my best, do PPT until two or three o'clock every night, and then get up early the next day to take the subway across Beijing to preach to customers. But at that time, housing prices in Beijing had risen too much, and even though my salary had more than doubled in just one year, I still couldn't keep up with the soaring housing prices, so I resigned and went to Hangzhou.
▲
In a rented house in Hangzhou, Feng Xiaoning sometimes cooks for herself
(Image source: Feng Xiaoning's fairy at home)
After coming to Hangzhou, I turned down an offer from another big factory and chose a job with a stable salary and easier work, so that I could have time to do some side hustles and realize my dream of buying a house as soon as possible. But in less than a year, because I didn't understand the world, I didn't have a good relationship with the company's leaders, and my side business of reselling second-hand luxury goods did not go as smoothly as I imagined. Thinking that I still couldn't buy a house in Hangzhou, I quit my job again.
In fact, my obsession with buying a house stems from my parents' expectations.
I am the only child in my family, and my parents are ordinary working-class people. My mother once said that if I bought a house in Hangzhou and got married, they would move in and rent a house to accompany me. But I don't want them to rent, and my goal has always been to buy a house, or even two houses.
One day after surviving that tragic Spring Festival, I was alone in the rental house, and my mother sent me a voice message, and I forgot the other words she said, only one sentence I remember very clearly, "Life is like this for decades, live well". When I heard it, I burst into tears. In many cases, I still need to tie the bell, and the pressure on me to buy a house actually comes from her, so what she said made me feel relieved at once, and I decided to go home immediately.
▲
During the Hangzhou drift, Feng Xiaoning walked back to the rental house alone
But after returning to Shenyang, I didn't immediately return to my normal life.
I dragged my bloated body home from rainy Hangzhou, and in my mother's words, "I didn't feel like a man." For almost a year, both to heal and because of the epidemic, I stayed at home and didn't do anything, just playing games and drinking a little wine every day.
In the middle of last year, I started looking for a job again, and finally picked up my old business at a local Internet company in Shenyang, advertising operations. But I soon found out that my experience in a big city didn't give me any credit for the job, but made my colleagues wary of me, thinking that I wouldn't stay long or that I was very demanding, and that they wouldn't want to work with me even if I had already offered to do so.
It also makes me more disenchanted with working on the Internet. In the past, when I worked in a large factory, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, but in fact, I didn't have any real feeling, and the mental pressure was also great, after all, it was the boss's money. Moreover, many people in this situation actually don't understand why they want to do this, and they may be aiming for the high salary in this industry.
Gradually, I found that I could get pleasure from household chores such as picking vegetables and pulling beans. After a month or two at that company, I quit my job and stayed at home and started honoring my parents full-time.
▲
Feng Xiaoning is at home in Shenyang, making his own secret pies
The 300 yuan pocket money thing was actually discovered by myself. When I got home, I would sometimes buy some food for the family or buy something online, and my parents would transfer money to me, saying that they would bear the expenses of the family. But I found that they always turn around, in fact, they just give me pocket money, maybe I'm afraid that giving it directly will hurt my self-esteem.
Including doing housework too. At first they would think, how can you be a big boy to do such a thing, if I pick a vegetable and stew a soup or something, my mother will want to grab it. Now, they are Xi to it, and sometimes when they eat the southern food I make, they will say, "This dish is delicious, you can make it for the New Year." ”
In fact, I enjoy taking care of my parents at home, and I also feel that it is my responsibility. In the years that I have been out, my parents have actually endured a lot of loneliness at home. My parents have also given me a lot of freedom all the while. Including the fact that I didn't work at home, they didn't say much, they just felt that as long as the family was together, everything else was easy to say.
For example, before the Chinese New Year last year, it was the worst time of the epidemic. At that time, my mother was the first to be impotent, and the symptoms were very serious, and she was bedridden all the time. Because of the lockdown of the community and the lack of medicine at home, I secretly climbed over the fence at night to find a small pharmacy. My mother also said that if her son was not around, she would not dare to think about it.
This year we can finally have a normal year. I don't have any special plans at the moment, I used to be busy with my parents and the two of them, and this year I plan to show my relatives.