Not many people can say they moved to Michigan for a job. My partner did just that, leaving behind all of our friends, a warm climate, and a booming economy in Texas. While still receiving unemployment, I’m among the millions here without job and struggling to figure out when, if ever, my industry is going to rebound.

My job as main anchor for a FOX station in Texas was eliminated last September. One night after our late newscast, the boss called me and said it was over when my contract expired in two weeks. The station would be going with just one anchor to save money. I would be joining the unemployment line at the worst time since the Great Depression and just five weeks before turning 40.

Television news isn’t what it once was. Owning a TV station was once a license to print money. Detroit stations are still cutting staff. Asking anyone about a job in Michigan generally gets you a laugh and a funny look as if to say “Jobs? You must be kidding, this is Michigan. They‘re all gone.“

My demo tape and resume no doubt sit in a stack of hundreds, if not thousands in some corner. My two Emmy nominations, an RTNDA Golden Mike, and 23 years of experience anchoring/reporting don’t count anymore.

The very few people, mostly very young people, still being hired today are doing the jobs of three staffers. They videotape, edit, write and report. The people who once did those other jobs are somewhere out with me wondering what to do next. Like me, they’re not opposed to learning how to do more, they were never even given the chance. When the time came to cut, it didn’t matter how good they were, only that they were no longer necessary.

The website for the Communications Department at the University of Michigan is full of all kinds of abstract constructions on the dynamics of changing social media. I wonder how that is going to help these kids grab a camera, go into a dangerous neighborhood and interview the family who just lost a son in a drive-by shooting. Will what they learned in college help them deal with the news director that is asking them to shoot, edit, write and present three stories on a given day? Education is important, but it’s not going to matter what you learned if doesn’t prepare you for the challenges and heartache of the real world.

Those being hired in the future will be doing three jobs and more for about half what I was making, yet they’ll be glad just to have a job. I hope the public remembers that old saying, “you get what you pay for.” When journalists are doing three times more, they won’t be able to fact check, to use and interview multiple sources, or even get the full story.

If you have to be unemployed, the Ann Arbor area isn’t so bad I guess. There are plenty of coffee shops where you can find other unemployed people. Sometimes you go and sit for hours, just to be around others.

You send out resumes. You e-mail contacts in your field. Employed friends say they’ll try to help. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, fearing for their own jobs. Others call offering their advice about “reinventing yourself.” What if what you were doing was the only thing you’ve ever wanted to do? What if you truly love to write and tell stories?

The daily silence of hopelessness sets in. There was a time when you received rejection letters in the mail. Companies don’t have the resources to formally reject you these days or even acknowledge if your resume was received.

Pretty soon, the days turn into weeks that become months.

It could be worse. My truck is paid for. My credit card debts aren’t insane. My partner makes enough money that we’re not going to be homeless or go hungry.

The worst part about unemployment is what it does inside. Everyday is like being the ugliest boy or girl in school. No one wants you. They don’t even want to talk to you. You’re not even worth the effort to reject. You are all but invisible. You don’t matter anymore.

But just when you start to really feel bad for yourself, you discover that life is still precious and still worth living. Mom called me last week to say the cancer she had 24 years ago has returned, and it is everywhere. Perhaps a year, maybe 18 months to go. She is 70.

For now, I have no happy ending to my story, but I want others to know that you are not alone in those feelings you’re having each day about yourself and your situation. Pray for all our collective mental health, and our futures. Godspeed.

Jim Walker is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated, yet unemployed broadcast journalist from Texas, now living in Ypsilanti.