The weekdays of the last five weeks of my oh-so-very-exciting life have centered around procuring gainful employment. This tedious daily process starts with never-ending applying to the copious amounts of opportunities posted on the job boards I belong to. I weed through them quickly, searching out the applicant requirements to verify that the missing letters following a comma after my name will not be an immediate dissuasion to hiring me. I pen my cover letters with personal attention to each specific ad, outlining my most able qualifications to meet the needs of the Company I am attempting to woo. And I alter my resume, if necessary, to better highlight any of my related accomplishments over the years. 

To every fifteen companies I submit my resume to, I hear from one, maybe two potential employers. In the last three weeks, I’ve landed 21 interviews, and I’m getting very good at the process; me in my best professional clothes, sitting up straight, answering the same questions as the last potential employer asked, and rounding things out with a smile and a handshake, as I offer a statement of my gratitude for their time. A day or two later, I will receive a response to my follow-up email, offering me a “thanks, but no thanks, we’ll keep your resume on file”. 

The disheartening news I have received the last several weeks, has been curbed only by my knowledge that there are just a ton of other people out there responding to the positions to which I am applying. Last week I interviewed with a business owner who told me he received 300 resumes for the position we were discussing, after only two days on Craigslist. 

Still, discouragement is optional. And, while I have definitely chosen the option more times I can count the last several weeks, I’m pretty much sick of keeping company with the asshole depriving me of my courage, robbing me of hope, and abducting my confidence.

And that asshole? Is me.

So, the last week I’ve made a go of an abrupt shift in thinking, trying to ditch the whole glass half empty mentality. The truth is, a shitty attitude can take a person down. And worse, it can keep a person down. 

And it worked! I start my new job tomorrow with a Company I’m very excited to work for. Additionally, I received a second job offer on Monday at another place I interviewed last week. And after so many backhanded rejection emails, to that I say woo-to-the-mother-effing-hoo!

I’m not naive enough to believe that the only reason I finally acquired employment was because I decided to see my glass as half full, instead of half empty. But it sure couldn’t have hurt.

I have a feeling I’ll be fighting with that bitch Nelly again soon. After all, life can’t always be sunshine and roses- if anything, the law of opposites has taught us that. How can one know the awesomeness of life if one has never fallen into despair? At least that’s what I’m telling myself.