Email

Ever had one of those days that just irks you? That makes you angry, frustrated and all together miserable for a period of 24 hours? Well, I did. At least today was one of those days. In an effort to defer my loans I went to the orientation of a Spanish class at my local community college. The orientation was pretty boring. Same nonsense of how to sign on for the chats, where to post my discussions and how to contact my professor. See, I’m a bit of a slacker. I don’t really want to show up to class so I take online classes instead. It’s really quite a brilliant idea and one that works out pretty well if it weren’t for these orientations. But enough about that. The truth is I spent most of the time logged onto gmail communicating with my sister Kendra about work. See, im in a bit of bind because I can’t find a job. It’s really quite terrible. I have been searching for the past two weeks and can’t find anything. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. It’s as though my resumes and credentials have slipped past the eyes of anybody important and I am left to fight the cruel and brutal world on my own. Well, I do have my parents and a roof over my head but you get the picture. Well, I was on gmail when I received an email from an inquiry I had made at the LA Times. Oh, The LA Times you ask? Yes, the LA Times. Apparently there were no job openings, but they would keep my resume on hand should anything pop up. Great I thought. Another nice of way of telling me to take a big hike somewhere else. To forget about my dreams of being a published writer and send my materials to the local mediocre paper. Just what I needed. Another employer to tell me that I wasn’t good enough.

Eventually the orientation ended and I walked towards the parking lot. In the back of my mind, I really believed that even if I was gone for three hours no one would ticket me. I mean how could they possibly ticket a struggling college student that needs to attend classes and get materials? There was no way that could happen. Besides, it’s not like people really control that, right? Wrong. Very wrong. I walked towards my car and looked at the windshield. There it sat. A big white notice with writing in black ink. A ticket. Great I thought. No job, no money and no way of being able to pay this disaster. I got in my car said “uggghhh” about a dozen times and went home.

At home I opened my email again. This time it was for a position as a writing center tutor at another local community college. The woman that responded was nice, well as nice as someone can be over email. She told me that I could forward my resume to her and that she would like to schedule me for an interview. Normally one would be happy about this. Heck normally I would be ecstatic about this, but the problem is that I have already gone on about a billion interviews and nothing has resulted from them. The way I look at it this woman is telling me to come back in five years. She got my resume all right, but who knows if anything will ever develop. I know I probably shouldn’t be so pessimistic, but heck if you’re luck had been as bad as mine you’d be acting the exact same way too.

In any case, the day continued to disintegrate into tiny little pieces. I had recently taken the CSET, a test designed to measure my skills in the English language. You see, I am planning on becoming a teacher and I have to pass the CSET in order to complete the teacher-credentialing program. Well, I got two emails today. They both revealed my grades from the last two sections of the test. And, lo and behold what do you think they said? Well, I didn’t pass the third section or the fourth. Basically I had failed. The big F word was what I felt like saying. How could this be possible? Wasn’t I somewhat qualified to pass this test? Hadn’t I done my best and proven it on the test? Well, I actually hadn’t I had taken a four hour test in one hour and thirty minutes. But it really wasn’t my fault. I mean I was getting ready to leave the country and the last thing on my mind was the CSET. It didn’t matter though. I could cry and throw a tantrum and it wouldn’t really change the situation. I had altogether blown my chances of finishing this damn test by disregarding the last two sections. I wish I could say that my day got better. That someone called me and offered me a job, or that my ticket had miraculously been withdrawn but it hadn’t. My day ended pretty much the way it had started, with a series of mindless emails.

-HS