I still feel the wave of ice cold gooseflesh that washed over me when the call came in almost two years ago. I was in my kitchen stuffing cheap junk food into my gullet and looking over my list of other businesses that were hiring. I had lost my job four months earlier and I was beginning to go crazy. The moths that fluttered out of my wallet when I opened it shook their head as they passed me by and muttered “get a job.” But it wasn’t that easy.
The job tree had stopped producing earlier that year and all the news could talk about some bubble that had popped. The government played a game pointing fingers at each other as if it wasn’t a mutual mistake. I never paid attention to the talking heads. Their talking wasn’t helping me get hired.
“So, are you still looking for a job?” The familiar voice spoke up and snapped me out of my stupor. My nerves went haywire again and my stomach churned. It knew I was scared. Scared of an unfamiliar job, commitment, and the unknown.
I looked down at the bag of chips I was eating and frowned. From where I stood, in my kitchen in an old t-shirt and boxers, I knew that I had two options. Say no and continue to eat chips and watch reruns, or say yes, as scary as it seemed, and get a new job.
“I am.” I said. “And I’ll take it.”
William Cass is a student at SJSU.
The Bolt Magazine 