But as I look back, those were really some of the most stress-free, happy times of my life.

Heck, ya. I've never felt stress melt away so much as it did when I heard those magic words "we're laying you off temporarily" the day after the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend (2001). Not when I got my next job, not when I finished writing exams, not even when I graduated from university. On the other hand, when I left the building, I also had so much confidence that I told myself I'd have a new job inside of two weeks. I had a single interview at two and a half weeks, and that's all it took.

My brother, on the otherhand, is not faring so well -- he's getting all the money I had to pay into unemployment insurance but didn't see a penny of when I was laid off.