I was made redundant a couple of years ago, and it was the shove I needed to enrol on a degree course and study Law, and now I am working for a Solicitors office. Earning a pittance but soon I anticipate earning a damn sight more..
On another note, this may sound incredibly corny, but where I used to leave was near a home for the severely disabled, and the staff used to take the residents out now and again. One day I was walking home and someone from the home was pushing a trolley/chair thing that was almost like a bed, so deformed was the man on it. It was a beautiful warm day and the sky was vivid blue, and as I walked past them I could see that the guy on the trolley (in his twenties, disabled and unable to speak) was looking up at the sky and I can honestly say I have never seen a look of pure joy on someones face as that man had on his, as he was outside on that sunny day. It was only brief as I walked past them but it was very moving.