The End of the Hunt

I have jobs! Today was my first day at Fins, a taco place within walking distance, and next week I start working at Pottery Barn Kids in the mall a short bus ride away. Hooray! After nine days of nonstop job searching, I felt liberated when Pottery Barn Kids called and offered me a second job, enough hours to fill the 30-40 hour requirement. I am also so excited that in both my jobs, I get to wear jeans! I’m so sick of my slacks I almost want to pack them up and throw them away. Or burn them. That would be satisfying. But I love them too much to do anything drastic.

It’s been an exhausting journey. Before I came, I asked God to prepare a place for me, so I knew he had something in mind, but it’s exhausting to go out every day not knowing if today is the day or how much of the work is useless. It’s exhausting to continue applying to places even when I have interviews lined up for later in the week. It’s exhausting to wake up each morning knowing the day will be just as busy and unproductive as yesterday. I’ll go out and do a lot of busy work, but at the end of the day I will sleep unemployed.

I applied to 41 places, was rejected by 11, had 8 interviews, and was offered 6 jobs, two of which would only take me if I promised to remain in San Diego indefinitely. If I end up staying, I may try to get a full time job at Vons as a cake decorator, but I’m nervous to work at Slaveway again.

And after all that work, Fins hired me on the spot.

I never thought I'd need SAT knowledge again, but here in the real world, some employers put you through a trial of fire. IRISH is to CULTURE as RELIGION is to___. If you can buy two lemons for 15 cents, how many can you buy for 60 cents? What number comes next in the sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, __? The test is made to be unfinishable, but you are to complete as many questions as possible in ten minutes. I don’t need to tell you how annoying it is.

I currently have my new address, my old work addresses, my old work phone numbers, and my reference phone numbers memorized from writing them so many times on so many applications.

I always knew God had a plan, but it’s hard to follow him through the dark. It’s hard to do the busy work, and I don’t even know what important work he had me doing for nine days. Someone once told me you never see your wake. You slice through the water but never know who you affect. We came here to get jobs, but not for the sake of having a job. We came here to meet people and tell them the gospel. God could have given me a job on day one, but he pulled me through the dark for a week and a half for reasons I don’t know. But whatever the reason, it’s a good one.

Things to pray for:

I’ve been very distracted by issues from the past semester and have a hard time concentrating on what I should be learning here. Please pray for healing from everything that’s happened.

I also miss my friends.

Pray that God would prepare me for whatever work he has for me this summer. Pray that I would be bold in sharing the gospel and would be able to love people like Jesus loves them.