Life Update: New Job?

Two weeks ago I was just about ready to give up with the whole job search thing. I haven't been getting any calls from the DOE (Department of Education) for a teaching position since I returned from my trip to the mainland. I also applied for a different sector in the DOE, but my application for educational assistant was taking forever to be processed. As the school year loomed closer, I was filled with dread wishing for my phone to ring with a call from a principal asking for a job interview. When school did start and no calls came, I gave up on a teaching career that I wasn't sure I really wanted in the first place. However, when you're living with your parents and they keep talking about how you just wasted your education and their money putting you through college... well, you gotta do what you don't want to do sometimes.

A week passed with me at home all day and panicking about my dwindling leftover trip money. A teaching job was a lost cause, but I figured can do other things even with my lack of experience. You see, I pretty much lived in a bubble while I was in school, with everything given to me. I did not work any jobs while in high school or college; everything was provided for me. My parents insisted I focus all my energy on school (which I did with no complaints). Now, I'm pretty much a baby experiencing "real-life" for the first time.

Anyway, that week I pretty much applied to all the places my parents deemed worthy for me, a college graduate, to apply in. By "worthy" they meant NO McDonalds, Burger King or any other fast food joints and no Walmart/Kmart kind of stores. They can be such snobs sometimes, but I avoided those places just the same (maybe I'm kind of a snob too). Instead, I applied in Macy's, Borders (my #1 favorite store) and Bank of Hawaii. Sadly, I never did hear from Borders and I apparently didn't have enough experience to be a Macy's sales associate. So, I was feeling very down and thinking very pitiful "no one wants me" thoughts.

Resigned to being unemployed, I was very surprised to get a phone call from a school. They wanted to know if I could go to the school right then for an interview. The interview lasted about five minutes, I was hired as a part time reading tutor, and I started the very next day after that phone call. I was so happy--practically floating on air! I have a job! My very first job! I felt very grown up and very adult.

I was back in school working with children again (I didn't know I'd miss it so much), and the staff I worked with were all very nice and friendly. I felt right at home at that school, reminiscent of the school I did my student teaching in. I worked my first full week just last week.

And then disaster struck...