the sequester

When I moved away from DC I was not at all sad to leave all the politics behind. Living there a person can't avoid the daily conversation of politics and living there during an election year magnified it all. I really haven't paid too much attention to the politics of Washington in the last 3 years. Since leaving DC I've felt very removed from what goes on there. But now our lives and what is happening in them are directly tied to what happens there in the next couple of days.

Mark is currently in the hiring process to become an air traffic controller, something that he has been working towards for the last 2+ years. Last May he received his tentative offer letter which told him where he would be working and it also started the hiring process. We have since been waiting for him to be placed in a training class in Oklahoma City and from there he would begin working full time doing something that he loves. We've never know exactly when he would be placed in a class. There are many variables that go into the whole process but for the last few months it has been our understanding that he would most likely go into a class sometime between April and September of this year. That was until it appeared that the sequester was going to happen. The FAA is going to implement a hiring freeze along with furloughs for current employees. They will also need to close the training center in Oklahoma City. There is now no indication as to when he will received a final offer letter and be off to train in his dream job. He is not the only one. There are literally thousand of others who rely on the government for employment that face similar situations.

We had made a lot of plans based on Mark beginning his career. We moved 5,000 miles last fall to a new city with just our suitcases and some boxes. We've put off buying a car, relying on public transport and friends to get places. We've also, and this is probably the hardest thing, put off starting a family. Something that we both desperately want. There are many other things we would like to be able to do, things we want to buy and places we want to visit but all those things are now placed on hold. We are now forced to live our lives in a state of stagnation.

There is a lot I don't know or understand about the sequester, budgets and the economy. All I know is that Mark and I are facing a terribly depressing turn of events. The worst part is that we have done nothing to bring this on ourselves. Many people try and point fingers in an attempt to place blame. The fact of the matter is, the game of politics is being played by both sides and those who will be hurt the most are simply spectators.