To Sir, With Love

There are as many emotions in unemployment as there are colors in the rainbow.

Today, I am feeling them all.

Anticipation, excitement, fear, sadness, excitement...

This Thursday my anonymous blog will no longer be faceless.

Last Friday morning, I woke up to five emails in my sirbacon mailbox.

Four of them said I had won the Irish lottery.

My apologies to two of my musical heroes, U2 and Sinead O’Connor, but I deleted those emails without opening them.

But it was the fifth email that informed me that I had won the American lottery.

I opened that email faster than my kids open a package from Santa.

It was from a producer at CNN, who said she enjoyed my blog and wanted me to appear on their “30-Second Pitch” segment.

For those of you at work during the day, that segment is where CNN gives unemployed people the opportunity to pitch themselves for 30 seconds to millions of viewers (and possible employers).

Actually, it wasn’t me that she was contacting, but Sir Bacon, the kind-hearted faceless blogger who has kept me sane for the last 16 weeks.

After I stopped hyperventilating, for what felt like three days, I realized the incredible opportunity that was ahead of me.

Actually it was my good friend Lisa who realized it.

My first instinct was how cool that so many people were going to get introduced to the blog.

Lisa’s the one who firmly said, “YOU ARE GOING TO GET A JOB!”

Shows you where my head is, huh?

My postings at businessinsider.com have been amazing.  

Nearly 44,000 hits.  So far.

The article at La Presse Newspaper was incroyable.   

So many French-Canadian followers, you would think I was singing backup for Célene Dion.

But with all due respect to those two wonderful publications, in the words of James Earl Jones...

THIS IS CNN!

This is my opportunity to possibly return to the ranks of the employed.

But with it comes a big price.  At least for me.

With it comes the end of my safety net, called anonymity.

Now there is no way that I could go on CNN as sirbacon without saying who I really am.  

That would be stupid for me.

And there is NO way I could go on CNN as me without talking about sirbacon.   

That would be disrespectful to him.  Or me as him.

The plain and simple truth is that this is the best thing to happen to my career in the last 18 months.

I had to say yes.  Actually, I had to say YES!

Just imagine if Carrie Underwood chose to stay home instead of taking the risk and auditioning for American Idol.   

She would be so much worse off and so would our ears.

I am so excited for this opportunity I could scream, but I better save my voice.

I am so nervous for this opportunity too.

I don’t expect anyone to love sirbacon as much as I do or to even understand the power of what he has done for me.

The beauty of sirbacon is the ability to speak to you, straight from the heart, no strings attached.

I still plan on writing this blog, as sirbacon, even after I get a job.  
(Insert joke here.)

I don’t know if it will ever be the same.  But, I truly hope so.

I also hope that you get a chance to watch this Thursday morning at 10:40am ET to see the real me.

Thank you for the ride of my life.

The next stop is CNN.

We’ve got a full tank of gas and plenty of road ahead of us.