Another coworker is leaving the office. Unfortunately, the Recession has forced a lot of people to seek employment outside Ann Arbor, and another friend packing up her desk is not an uncommon sight. I ask if she’s moving up north to be nearer to her family, or enjoy a lower cost of living. Her answer throws me: She’s opening up a small business. She and her husband have purchased a building and adjacent land to be the proprietors of a hot dog stand in Suttons Bay.

People are leaving, but it’s something other than a job that pulls them away.

At such a time of economic desperation, the thought of leaving a job to chase one’s dreams may seem like insanity. But it’s actually no coincidence that the hard times have started people on the road to their ideal careers; they pursue what they have always dreamed of doing seemingly on the theory that the recession can’t hit much harder. A few years ago, when promotions were on the horizon and investments were doing well, they were content to ignore any career perks that couldn’t be listed on their taxes. In the wake of forced retirements, downsizing, and an unemployment rate that puts a quarter of the city below the poverty line, people have the chance to see their lives in a different light. If not now, when?

My coworker explains that the flailing economy was actually a positive factor in her decision. Property prices have been dropping steadily “thanks” to the recession; many landholders have had to sell for a much cheaper asking price. While this is an unfortunate trend, the sale at least earns money for the holder and the new business creates revenue for the state. New businesses can get a 2 year interest-free loan to cover startup costs; that’s a better deal than students can get on their school loans.

It’s still a gamble, certainly. Even if you set up shop and are given two years to turn a profit, there’s no guarantee you will make enough to pay off the debt, or that the country’s financial straits will have rebounded. But those currently staring down the barrel of unemployment have nothing left to lose.

Three of my friends are doing part-time work barely related to their majors. The thing they all have in common is that they’re all writing books in their now-unaccounted for spare time. One was able to buy her first house, largely due to tax credits and plummeting home values. Some have decided to go in for their Master’s, rationalizing that their loans will be deferred for two years, and maybe by then the increased debt will be worth the pay raise. Even if it isn’t, going back to school a positive reaction to the crisis: seeking a fulfilling unemployment, rather than a dejected one.

This might seem a pretty farfetched way to turn lemons into lemonade, but studies have shown that economic crises can actually be beneficial to your physical health. A change in situation, even among dire circumstances, can have a similar effect: During WWI, women who were overwhelmed by household duties took on volunteer jobs in addition to their daily duties. Paradoxically, the increased workload made them less stressed and much happier. The sense of futility was gone: they felt as if they were making a difference, felt needed. Two hours in a community center made the difference between living and surviving.

Perhaps it isn’t the capital ‘D’ Depression forcing the artistic migration, but the lower-case one. In times of financial desperation, we barely give heed to the emotional desperation—that feeling of hopelessness we can ignore when gainfully employed. You need that hope to keep you alive. That thing you do—painting, writing, music, theater—that you’ve always done, that you’ve never been paid for a day in your life. In flush times, you would have made excuses for abandoning such pastimes, but strangely now they’re coming back to you—not as a distraction, but as a necessity. Now that we’re not making a living, we are able to choose a living.

Sarah Smallwood is a freelance writer living and working in Ann Arbor. She is currently rewriting her first novel, keeps a daily blog at The Other Shoe and hosts a podcast at Stuff with Things. She can be reached at heybeedoo at gmail dot com.