i went more than three months without a job. i applied to 4-5 jobs that i thought i had in the bag, migrant student advocate, bilingual medical assistant, legal assistant, and youth mentor. but what i've learned is you just never know. you have to lie lie lie and tell them what they want to hear. you would think this would be easy for a person who is such a people pleaser. i do it all the time for my friends and family. it hasn't always worked out so well. i thought honesty was the best policy. when it comes finding a job its the worst policy.
after being turned down so many times, my ego was feeling quite small, i started to wonder what i was doing wrong. or if i was only just a pretty face to look at and there was nothing underneath. i decided to go back to food service and applied at local restaurants. i landed a second inverview at callys downtown and was hired on the spot. it took them about 2 weeks to get me on the schedule and i thought i was going to get screwed by them too, but i finally started. hostess with the mostest...here i come. smiling, greeting, seating, i did this when i was 15. awesome. it feels like im moving backwards. last year i was the beer girl at lakeview golf course. at least i can give you a big pretty smile...that's about all you need for the jobs i was getting. or so it felt.
i guess i started applying to the peace corps sometime in may. really it was on a whim. i got nominated for a program in june 2010 which basically means you start a grueling medical background check, legal check, etc. that takes months to get through. although i didn't like the thought of leaving for two whole years my first real boyfriend that im in love with and who i might or might not ever get back with...i managed to get through all the doctors appointments and tedious paperwork and was medically cleared in late July 2010. i needed something to keep me going.
I've been told by maaaany people from maaanny places it is impossible to get into the peace corps right now. too many people are applying and they are nominating double the amount of people that they can accept. miraculously, on august 19th I found out I was being invited to serve with the peace corps for two years in costa rica!!! there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. it gets hard to see that light but it is there.
you can't always get what you want...but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.
its ironic that i was waaay qualified and had serious connections with little competition for many of the jobs i applied for during my unemployment stint but ended up being accepted into the peace corps.
this is the blast off into my rebirth. out of my life in harrisonburg and into my life as i had dreamt it in college...spending extended amounts of time in another country.
-nicole
