Me, A victim of the recession. Who'd have thought?

Whilst at secondary school I learned how the First World War, once it was over, led to a massive recession in Germany and how the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in America caused the world to spiral into a state of economic uncertainty for many years.
Little did I know or understand, that similar things could and would happen to the world in my lifetime.
Certainly, no one could have predicted back then that today we would be facing the world's worst state of recession since the times gone by, but at some point in the last decade, governments must have realised that the financial situation of the globe was gradually declining.

Today, in the year 2009, we are overwhelmed by a recession, which just seems to be getting worse. "Credit Crunch" is the buzz word of the moment and it is rare you go through a day without hearing those two small yet powerful words or seeing evidence of the recession on the news or in everyday life.

As a full-time student, my main priority is my studies. Recently however I, along with many others became a victim of the credit crunch when I was made redundant from my part-time job in a retail store: Principles.
Who would have thought, that before I had even reached the age of twenty I would have been made redundant. I am not the only one though, thousands of employees were thrown out of a job in the Principles company alone - not to mention the thousands of people who have suffered the effects of the sordid economic climate and those who are probably still to become victim.

Upon losing my job, I realised that you don't really realise how serious the "Credit Crunch" is until you actually experience it for yourself. I have seen numerous news reports over the past year on the downwards spiral of the world's economy, but watched it as an observer, not as somebody who knew how it felt or really understood the effects.
I suppose it is like most things, unless you have experienced something for yourself, you don't really know how it feels.
Well, losing your job and your source of income doesn't feel too grand. For me, it was bad, but not half as bad as it was and probably still is for the employees who rely on that source of income and those have built their careers within the high street brand of Principles that is no more.

Luckily and rather surprisingly, I have found another job more or less straight away. I haven't yet started it, but fingers crossed it isn't the next victim of the recession.

All we, as a society, can really hope for is a brighter future. Let's hope that the government has learned from past mistakes and that it can solve this problem for us, the public.