Rhetorical devices

Irony

The text “Stop Searching For Your Passion” by Terri Trespicio begins on a humorous note, with Trespicio comparing being laid off to going through a break-up: 

The day I got laid off from my job at Martha Stewart I was relieved. I loved the job. I really did but the relationship was over, and I didn’t know how to end it and then it broke up with me. Don’t you love when that happens? (ll. 1-3)

Here, Trespicio uses self-irony to show two things: that being laid off is not a tragic situation and that people tend to drag out a displeasing job just like they do with a bad relationship. 

Then, Trespicio uses self-irony when she talks about one of her failures:

Anyway, I was such a mess when I was in my twenties, such a mess, I was anxious and depressed and I had no life to speak of. I was temping to keep my options open and I was sitting around at night in my underwear watching Seinfeld reruns, actually I still do that...