Lori, hello! Wonderful to hear from you. My allergies have gotten worse every year for the past 10 years or so. They're just starting to kick in again, even though it's still below freezing most days. There's some sort of tree pollen in the air, apparently. Hang in there.
I really feel for you, Lin. I agree -- when we feel like we have no control over a situation, we can get very depressed and start seeing everything in a negative light.
You do have control over one area, however -- how you react to your circumstances and challenges. I can say from long experience that life is MUCH easier when you can manage a positive outlook. And boy, do I know how hard that can sometimes be. Remind me of this if I get laid off!
But doing admin temp work definitely doesn't need to mean writing off web work except as a hobby. When I moved to Michigan, I signed up with a temp agency to do secretarial work. (This was with a BA and 12 years professional experience in a variety of fields. Ask me how my attitude was!) I also told them I had certain skills, among them writing.
Lo and behold, they found me a tech writing temp job. (Not right away; I did the secretarial thing for about 6 months first.) Apparently they got a call from a small electric machine repair company who needed someone to write software documentation for them. I'd never written software documentation in my life, but I figured it couldn't be too hard. The pay was maybe $10 an hour, like my other temp jobs.
I did that job for about 9 more months. I wrote a bunch of manuals. It was that experience that got me into a consulting company doing tech writing full time, which eventually led to web work, which eventually led to what I'm doing now.
What I'm saying is this -- your temp jobs could take some interesting turns, especially if you let your employers know you can help them out in web-related areas. (And for a lot cheaper than a web design firm would.) Tell the temp agency that you know HTML and Javascript and whatever else you can think of. List the classes you've taken. Tell them you'd prefer web work, but would accept admin work. (Or a combination thereof, which is probably most likely at first.) I'll bet you it won't be too long before you'll get your break, and eventually you'll start building up the experience you need.
Anyway, a very big congratulations on sticking with your program. I've had a terrible time staying OP the past few days due to the hormonal monster. Yesterday I finally ran out of banked points and am now in the red. And I'm bloated city! GACK!! I've got to break out of this cycle, because it really sets me back for the whole month when I overeat like this, even just for a few days. I also haven't exercised this week due to early mornings and late nights.
But this evening is a new evening, and tomorrow is another day.
Onward and downward,
Lauren