I knew the chance of working in a summer camp wasn’t big for me, so I was still looking for other jobs while I was waiting for them to call back.  I checked job sections on websites of different local shopping malls, trying to find some job postings.  Eventually I decided to go to the nearest shopping mall, and hand in my resumes to stores that were hiring.  I wasn’t positive about whether I was going to get a call for interview, but I just told myself “whatever, you got to just try”.

I also went to websites of some big chains of clothing stores and summited my resume.  I didn’t bother to write individual cover letters for each different company; I just changed the names.  It was like quantity instead of quality.  Of course none of these companies got back to me.

Luckily enough, I got a call from a shoe store that I applied in the mall.  I was invited to an interview.  The person interviewed me was the assistant manager, and the interview went pretty well.  I was soon informed that I was offered a part-time position, but I needed to meet the manager of the store and finish some paperwork.  The store manager was a Chinese lady.  Her English was really good that I didn’t notice any accent when I talked to her over the phone.  I thought she was born here, or immigrated at a very young age, until she told me that she actually firstly came here as an international student to study in university.  After finishing the paper work, I was officially hired as a part-time associate with minimum wage.

I didn’t see myself as working in a shoe store and earning minimum wage.  I aimed for something better, but this is what I eventually get.  However, the experience of the whole process is something unique.   It shows me the hope, the satisfaction, but also the cruelty of the real world.  There is no ending of this process, I will need to repeat it over and over.  I learn to accept disappointing results, and improve myself through failures.  Then I aim for something higher, and fail again.  It’s not like at school, everything is clear.  I have to find out what’s wrong and what to do by myself.  There is no clear ranking, it’s all relative.  “Welcome to the real world”, the adults say.

(to be continued)