Finding Home
I thought I had it figured out.
For nearly three years, I worked as a Full-Stack WordPress Developer for a marketing agency in Milwaukee. I loved the work, loved the people, and honestly expected to be there for years.
Then a single meeting changed everything.
Looking back now, that meeting wasn’t the end of my journey.
It was the beginning of the next chapter...
The Day Everything Changed
In November of 2022, I came out of the corporate world and started working for a marketing agency in Milwaukee as a Full-Stack WordPress Developer. I fell in love with that position almost immediately. I loved working through web issues with different clients. I loved working from home. I enjoyed ninety nine percent of what I was doing every single day. It checked every box I didn’t even know I had. I worked there for almost three years — two years and eleven months to be exact, not that I was counting. 😄
Around June of 2025, my supervisor asked if I would help a friend with some web development work on the side. I was open at the time so I said yes. It seemed simple enough. A favor. A side project. A little extra money. No big deal.
I had no idea my world was about to change rapidly over the next six months.
The Call I Never Saw Coming
About two months later, the end of August 2025, my supervisor set up a meeting, and we jumped on a call. I said hey, how’s it going — the kind of casual greeting you throw out without thinking. He looked at me and said “Well, not that good.”
I said I was sorry to hear that and asked what was up.
He looked at me again and said, “We lost a huge client and I’m really sorry to have to do this, but I have to lay you off.”
I was stunned — my brain hadn’t processed what just happened. I managed to say, “I understand.” He told me if there was any way he could figure out how to not do this, he would, but they had already looked and there just wasn’t another way right now. He said if they got another client he would hire me back in a minute.
No hard feelings. I knew he did what he could.
He managed to get me a little more time — I would have until the end of September before I was officially unemployed, with my last paycheck coming in October 2025. He offered to send a recommendation letter which I happily accepted. We talked for a few more minutes and ended the call on a good note.
Then I walked downstairs and sat down on the couch.
The Couch
My brain finally caught up with everything else happening in my body.
My wife looked at me and said, “What’s wrong?” She can always tell when something is up. I looked at her and said “I just got laid off.”
My mind immediately jumped to the mortgage, the bills, groceries, and everything else that depended on a steady paycheck. I loved that job. It was perfect for me. And now it was just… gone.
I cried a little. I was worried about the financials and whether I was going to make it through.
Then I calmed myself down, went back upstairs, and started doing exactly what I needed to do.
I worked on my resume. I applied for unemployment and food assistance. I started reaching out to recruiters I had worked with in the past. I even started my own companies — Velocity Digital and WPM Agency Solutions — to try and land web clients and get something going.
None of that really worked out the way I hoped.
But the funny thing was — I actually did have some income. I was still working on that side project. The one my supervisor had originally recommended me for. It wasn’t much, but I thought — maybe it will pick up?
It’s Funny How Life Happens
It never really truly makes sense. And yet sometimes everything almost seems to happen in exactly the order it was supposed to.
Before I knew it, the university had extra work for me. I started logging into their CMS — Cascade — one I had never learned before. I looked it over and figured it out in about two weeks. I started helping them code out templates in Velocity Templating Language, something else I had never done before. I just figured it out and kept going.
Then one day in October of 2025, the supervisor at the university called me and told me their webmaster — the person responsible for completing the redesign they were in the middle of — was leaving to take a different position.
I stopped.
About a week before that call I had actually thought to myself — it would be perfect if I could just work at the university full time. And now their webmaster was leaving?
The university supervisor asked me if I would be interested in doing this full time.
I said, “As it happens, I was just laid off a couple of months ago and I am free. I would love to do this full time.”
Head First
I submitted a resume, did interviews, and got them through the tight spot they were in — because that redesign needed to be live in December 2025 and it was already October.
I dove headfirst into Cascade CMS and learned everything I could. I built pages, formats, and blocks. I started going to meetings on campus and when I walked onto that campus for the first time, I felt something I did not expect.
It felt like I was supposed to be there.
I grew up on a university campus — my dad was a professor and a dean. Being there was like being home. It was where I wanted to be. It was where I was supposed to be.
I worked even harder and made sure they could see that with me on their team everything was going to be more than alright. I made sure everything was getting done on or ahead of time. I never once told them something couldn’t be done. I figured out anything and everything. I helped guide them during reviews and stepped in to have meetings with the third-party design firm they had hired. I managed everything in a way that made them trust me.
The Wait
We launched the redesigned site in December 2025 — right on time. I helped make sure everything went off without a hitch.
Then I waited.
I started getting impatient. I started to doubt myself. Maybe they didn’t really want me. Maybe I wasn’t good enough for what they needed. A few more days went by. Then a few more.
I did another interview or two in the meantime but they felt cold and distant compared to the university.
Then finally, I got an email saying they were going to call me.
It was late on a Friday. The week before Christmas 2025. I was not expecting to talk to anyone at 5pm on a Friday before the holidays — but there they were calling me.
I answered.
They told me they had reclassified the position and changed the title to Manager of Web and Digital Experience. They wanted me to be the one to take the job. And they told me they were able to meet my salary expectations.
I was speechless — but for the exact opposite reason this time.
I said I would take the job and that I was very happy to be part of the team.
I started that January 2026.
The Ending Nobody Saw Coming
During the months I was unemployed I only received one unemployment check. Everything else was money I earned as a consultant and 1099 employee — taxes would hit me in the stomach later, but that is a different story. 😄
I still had financial challenges to work through. I went through a debt class and got some help figuring things out. I am still working through some of that today. But I had a job. A good one. One I loved.
About four days after I started my new position my old supervisor emailed me. He said he knew I had just started the new job but asked if I wanted to do some field work for them when they needed help.
I said yes.
The man who had laid me off was now reaching back out to me — asking if I wanted side work when they had it. I’ve worked three jobs for them to this point. The work is sporadic but helps when I get it. In the end, my full-time job became a side job, and the side job became my full-time position.
I have been at Mount Mary University since January 2026. I love my position there. The money is not what it was at the agency — that is just the honest truth — but what I found at the end of that difficult road was something no salary could fully replace.
Purpose. Home. A place I was supposed to be.
You never really know what is going to happen in life. The road you walk down today may change and become a new road altogether. It may even become a road more suited for you.
Say yes to the small things. You never know where they may lead.
— Nate
