Focused Friday

I spent the day working on my social media stuff for All Mesopotamia, finding content via Twitter and scheduling that content to be posted on Facebook eventually. I am left feeling really good about all this, especially after looking at Facebook's analytics for the page and finding that since October 19th, there's been an increase of 200% for likes of the page. 

The important thing is to move forward and not let rejections like yesterday's interrupt my flow of movement forward. Good things will come, I just have to be patient. In the meantime, it's important to enjoy one's weekend, so I'm going to go do that so I can be fully charged and ready to take on a new week on Monday. 

A rejection

For a little over two months now, I've been in the market for an editing job more steady than my freelancing work. 

In that time, I've updated and polished my resume; I've gotten three interviews, two of which were with a dream employer I was sure would hire me; and I've gotten rejected by everyone.

In fact, I'm writing this on the couch as I lick my wounds from the latest rejection, a rather bizarre one. But before I describe what transpired between yesterday afternoon (which has a backstory extending back to the middle of last month) and tonight, I'd like to also mention that just before the bizarre rejection, I had also gotten a rejection email for a fellowship I had applied for late in the summer that I had completely forgotten about...so. Yeah. Today has been challenging my positivity pretty hard. 

Anyway, going back to the bizarre rejection: Last month, I applied for a remote job that is not as dreamy as the one with the dream employer I mentioned earlier, but would've been a great resume and skill builder for me as I look to revamp my career by doing anything and everything to prove myself as not only a viable candidate but an employee with drive and passion. It wasn't long after I sent off my cover letter and resume for this job before I got a brief and abrupt email asking for my salary requirements along with a disclaimer that this employer was operating on a shoestring budget. 

Now, while I search for and apply for jobs, I'm reading up on what to do and what not to do to ensure eventual employment via impressive resumes and cover letters that land successful interviews and fruitful negotiations. Almost all the literature I had read up until that email arrived in my inbox had advised me to not give a number when the salary question came up, to stick to the proclamation that I am "flexible." Naturally, I responded with what seemed to be the answer: "I am flexible," I wrote, and hit send. 

I heard nothing more from this employer, so I moved on with my life.

Then yesterday, just before I called it a business day, I noticed that that same job was still open. I thought it over and decided that I would apply again, this time including my salary requirements in the cover letter I still had saved on my computer. A couple of hours later, there was a response from the same individual who had emailed me last time, this one a little more verbose, but only because it informed me the salary range I had given was too high and included a series of screening questions. I agreed to the rate they could pay me, saying that it was the experience I cared about the most, and proceeded to answer the screening questions, including one about my computer's RAM and whether I am comfortable taking a copy editing test. 

It turned out my 4 GB RAM would not be enough for what was required, neither was the 8 GB RAM I have access to on another computer, but I assured the hiring manager that I would remedy this problem and began googling computers with a 16 GB RAM, because I'm driven that way. I completed the copy editing test in just over an hour and crossed my fingers. Less than an hour after completing the test, I got a response, a rejection. "It's not a fit," the hiring manager wrote abruptly.  

It's not so bizarre that I applied for a job and it didn't work out, I'm used to that. It is bizarre that an employer offering a salary quite a bit below the average for a role requiring a slew of skills and qualifications, most of which I meet, would still reject a candidate who applied twice, agreed to a much-below-average salary, and was ready to buy a brand new computer to do the job, all on top of no benefits. 

Maybe it really wasn't a good fit, I'm not saying that's not a possibility. I'm not even saying I'm the best candidate they have gotten or will get, but I would've been a good employee, one who really wanted the job for what it was, not what it paid. 

Trapped.

I'm in Houston, staying with my brother and his family for a few days. They have just moved into a new apartment.

This apartment is spacious, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and hardwood floors. I really like it. I also like the fact that this apartment is located in a building that has an actual state of the art gym and equally fancy pool. It even has a theater and a game room, if you like that sort of thing.

Why am I going on about my brother's new habitat? Well, because, simply put, I am trapped inside this apartment. Today, at least.

An apartment building with such cool things inside is also a place that needs protecting. So much protecting, apparently, that only two sets of keys and security clearance remote controls are given per household. To move through the building, you have to use your security clearance tools, which are all out and about at the moment.

Hence, I'm trapped.

Nature and the Sea

I went to the beach Sunday, and it was so windy, that people were flying kites on the shore. I don't go to the beach to fly kites. Moreover, I don't like kites, and I certainly don't like wind. I go to the beach to swim, and despite the high tide making violent waves crash onto the shore, I went in. I let the waves, big and high, crash over me, slap me around and even throw me down. A lot of people were doing just that; standing in water just deep enough to come up to the chest and just letting the sea try to kick them out.

I've never been one to like anything that, at least in theory, defies Nature. I respect Nature so much, I don't dare look it in the eye. I don't even put away my coats and sweaters until Memorial Day weekend. But that Sunday, I tell you, I was determined to feel saltwater on my skin, so I lifted my humble gaze and stared a force of Nature straight in the eye. The power it had over me, now that I think about it, was enough to be fatal if it so decided, but it let me get up each time it knocked me down. Knowing that humbles me even further.

I was watching the evening news three days later, when a news item talked about the high winds and high tides in the same waters I had braved and even learned to body surf in just days before. The waves had crashed over someone else, but did not let him get back up like they did me.

Nature. The Sea. I've finally grasped the meaning behind that faraway look in the eyes of seafarers. It is a look that says "I'm waiting for the tide."

I'm featured.

Well, it's not so much me that's being featured as much as my writing. I wrote a piece that was inspired by a headline by NPR, who of late are doing a few things here and there that aren't making me happy. It was that headline that served as a springboard for the piece you can now read at Intrepid Media.

The Mistake that Rained on Egypt's Parade is the name of the piece, and it talks about the unfortunate assault that Lara Logan suffered while covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square on February 11. I mostly talk about how this incident tainted the happy moment in Egyptian and Arab history. I actually wasn't sure it was such a good piece and wondered if it was a little unfocused, but I suppose I might've been wrong.

In advance, thanks for reading!