It's For My Own Good!

I think God is preparing me for business school beyond my wildest comprehension. He’s doing so much to prepare me that He’s rendering me unemployed. Yup. God loves me SO MUCH that He’s taking away my job, and leaving me to fend for myself.

Think about it. In every major application or interview, the most troubling question (for me, anyway) is this: What major obstacles have you overcome? To be honest, I’ve never had a concrete answer for that one. I was blessed enough to grow up in a two-parent household. That, in and of itself, is increasingly rare in black families. I have a younger brother and sister who, just as I did, attend four-year universities. My brother will soon be graduating and working for a major engineering company. The contract has already been signed! I come from a blessed family.

I was also fortunate enough to attend college on a full scholarship. I joined many organizations and graduated Summa cum Laude. In all honestly, I’m completely blown away by the fact that I can’t find a job. But, that’s not the point. Evidently hard work isn’t everything. Playing by the rules isn't all it's cracked up to be. Networking isn’t everything. Intelligence isn’t important. Sometimes, despite a person's greatest efforts, failure still lingers on the horizon. That is the very problem, however. I'm still operating as though things should go according to "my plan". But the world does not operate according to my plan – it operates according to God’s.

So, when I begin the application process, and commence with preparing for interviews, I will finally have an answer to that age-old question. My biggest obstacle: being in-and-out of work for the past three years. Despite my academic, professional, and extra-curricular accomplishments, I have been unable to maintain a job for longer than eleven months at a time. Why? I have no idea. I’ve considered, perhaps, it was bad karma… but I’m pretty sure that’s not it. Steady work just isn’t in my cards, evidently.

I have begun calling on old contacts, and implementing my resourcefulness. I guess I could go to NY for a few weeks, mooch off of friends, and earn that good old day-player rate as a production assistant. I’m sure Law & Order:SVU has as Assistant Director who needs some coffee. I can fetch it for him with my bachelor’s degree! And, in the meantime, politely ask (taxpaying) native New Yorkers not to walk down a particular block because "we're trying to shoot a scene here." They love it when you say that.

Or, I could begin working at a local Aveda, like I did when I was back home during my “year off.” The economy may be broken and ruined, but people still need their hair cut!

I could wait tables again or perhaps bartend... Maybe I’ll just sell my soul to the devil. I wonder how much it’s worth. LOL. Just kidding! It’s not that bad. I’m enrolling at YALE in two years. I’ll simply loan my soul to the devil and buy it back from him (with interest) after I graduate. I’m sure an Ivy League degree will land me somewhere that pays enough for me to buy it back. Well, let me not say “sure.” Look where that has gotten me…

The Single Aesthetic: Losing my job for the sake of a good story and admissions to my dream school. Seems like a pretty fair trade to me!