So, a lot has changed in my life over the past few months. I thought maybe some writing would help me get a handle on some of these ever-shifting emotions. Fortunately, I have a loving family and friends who are helping me make the transition one step at a time.
I have to say first of all: God alone took care of every single detail of every transition I’ve been through so far. None of it ever made sense at the time, though; it just seemed like one insurmountable obstacle after another. So, the past few months have definitely been a test of faith. First of all, graduating this spring somehow shoved me onto the roller coaster of temporary jobs while my resume was floating around on the internet. For a while, I worked at Barnes and Noble, and then I added a full time job at a day spa, hoping to start making ends meet on my own. (Crazy thing, this real world.) I really enjoyed talking about books and current affairs with customers at B&N, and I actually miss it sometimes. I don’t miss the minimum wage paycheck though. I’m glad I had (and still have) my tutoring job to fill in the extra income!
So, where’s first twist in the roller coaster? Well, while UCA was promising to assign me a French-speaking foreign exchange student as a roommate, and another friend of a friend was promising to move in the week school started, I signed a lease for a three bedroom duplex, counting on my two roommates to move in as planned…only to have the university drop the ball and my other potential roommate have a sudden change of plans on move-in day. In a matter of moments I was stuck with $800 in rent and utilities to pay on my own every month with 2 minimum wage jobs.
I was really proud of myself for not freaking out. God has proven himself so many times that I knew everything would be okay. But it was still a shock. All of a sudden, though, a few days later, two new roommates appeared out of nowhere – just in time. It’s kind of like He knew…lol.
But then, I discovered that this roller coaster contained more than just twists and turns; this thing has some seriously intense loops and corkscrews. When I started the spa job, I thought it was going to be the perfect next step. I had decided to learn Farsi/Persian to make myself more marketable for a government job, since it’s a high-demand target language, and the owners of the spa I started working for are Iranian and spoke it fluently. I thought it was an open door from God for me to walk through, because the job just popped up out of nowhere after I’d been praying about new job opportunities to take. But, God’s reasoning was far beyond my reasoning, and it turns out that I wasn’t placed at that job for the reasons I thought I was.
Just a couple of weeks after starting my job at the spa, I realized it was much more than I had bargained for. It was like the Navy Seal boot camp for receptionists. No joke. Clock in time was 8:25 for an 8:30 shift: one minute early was unacceptable, one minute late/four minutes early was also unacceptable. I found out that they had sent girls home for that before. I also found out I was the sixth receptionist to enter training within 5 months, and “only the strong” would survive. We would get barked at for leaving a pen in the wrong place, putting out one too many clipboards, not picking up a paper clip, and even doing the wrong business in the wrong bathroom. We couldn’t even heat up anything besides tea or soup in the microwave. I started going home with stomachaches and my OCD symptoms and anxiety began to spike. I was on the verge of quitting, but the other sweet girls who were in training with me kept urging me to stick with it. I’m not a quitter, so I did stay with it, until one weekend, I snapped, and I couldn’t go into work that day. I followed proper call-out procedures according to the manual, but the boss texted me on Monday telling me that he had cancelled all of my hours for that week and that we needed to have a talk. I called him several times over the next three weeks, and even stopped by the spa to see if he was there, but he would not return my calls and wasn’t there when I dropped in. It was during that three week break that FIS called me and offered me an interview for a bilingual job. FIS was the first company to call me about my resume from Careerbuilder.com that wasn’t an insurance sales company, and I figured I might as well take advantage of my off days, so I scheduled an interview and a couple of days later, I was filling out new hire paperwork for a Fortune 500 company.
I called the spa, finally reached my boss, who had “meant to call me” for those three weeks, just to tell me that he didn’t think I was a “really good fit for the job.” I politely let him know that I was perfectly qualified but was already quitting anyway, and that I really expected more professional and respectful employee/employer communication, i.e. if he didn’t want me to work there anymore, he owed me a phone call to that effect. He was pretty quiet after that. He still offered to tutor me in Farsi…oddly enough.
Anyway, the environment there was good preparation for the structure here at FIS. I’m a call center representative, servicing prepaid cards in English and Canadian French, so punching in and out of the phones has to be pretty precise and so does my scripting. However, the environment is really nothing like the spa – thank the Lord – and everyone I work with is friendly! I have benefits here, insurance, perks, discounts…and the chance to practice my French every day I’m at work. I even get a discount off of Ford vehicles, which means that when I’m ready to get my own means of transportation, God’s already provided a way to make it feasible.
Now all I have to do is get ready for this whirlwind of a week: finishing up my shopping for Lindsey’s wedding this week (got a totally cute bridesmaid dress for $25 and I already had the shoes!), flying out to VA on Thursday for the wedding and a few days off, and then getting back into the swing of my new work schedule. And paying bills. And car shopping. And more grown up stuff. It’s exciting and scary…but I’m learning that every change and every hurdle makes me stronger. There are things that I can handle now with composure that would have had me sobbing in the fetal position just six months ago, and that encourages me to keep going. The Lord is my strength, and my shield, my fortress forever.
