All Growed Up

At work I have been one employee short since before the holidays. Since we are a lean mean team of three being down one makes a big difference. Knowing that I will be out on maternity leave in a few months, this is one more item on my to-do list that’s contributing to my sleepless nights.

So for the last few weeks I have spent a portion of my day reading through resumes and scheduling interviews. Resume reading tends to fall into two categories: boring and completely ridiculous. I had forgotten all those overly positive, yet extremely vague ways of describing what a great asset (hee hee, begins with ass) you would be to such-and-such organization. As I read resumes and divide them into three piles: good, possible, and no way in hell, it reminds me of when J and I first moved to Nashville. We had been stuffing dollar bills in a large Mason jar for months. I think we had something shy of $2,000 when we decided that was plenty of money to move.

We came up to Nashville for one night, stayed at the Holiday Inn on West End across from Centennial Park and signed a one year lease. Then we went back to Florence, rented a U-Haul and packed up our stuff. Our stuff consisted of a hodge podge of used furniture which had been given to us from friends and family. Our couch was actually forced on us by J's roommate since bong water had been split on it on more than one occasion and in those days there was no such thing as Febreeze.

Not everyone in our family was pleased with our decision to move off to a city where we knew no one and live together out of wedlock, but we were young, in love and willing to take a chance. We bought the Tennessean and went through the want ads daily. Our job requirements consisted of the following: nothing in the foodservice business, we were tired of working crazy hours and long weekends, must have benefits, and we didn't want to be working for a company that went against our values.

We did what all young twenty something’s do in order to become a member of the working class. We went to Men's Warehouse and bought Jason a suit for interviews. This is still the only suit he has every purchased and we have gotten our monies worth by all the weddings we have attended over the years. It is a bit snug around the waist now, but he still wears it.

We spent afternoons in job placement agencies being tested on our computer skills and spouting off to big haired women who looked like they were more concerned about their next smoke break then getting us a great gig, about our hopes and dreams and ideal work conditions. We were two people with Bachelor of Arts degrees with no idea what we wanted to do. We were sent on all kinds of temporary jobs.

We made some funny missteps along the way. One morning we headed out optimistic about a job possibility for J. We were sharing a car at the time so I went with him. As we were heading downtown I asked J to give me the address so I could check out the map while driving. (These truly were hard times. We didn't even have a computer so there was no Map quest. We had to read maps. Updating our resume or emailing it to a prospect meant using our local library. I know for the young today this is hard to imagine).

As J read off the address "PO Box...", I stopped and stared at him. Then with a raised eyebrow I said, "So our new job tactic is stalking a potential employer at the local post office when they come in to pick up the mail"? Oh these were funny times. We laughed ourselves silly and did what any other broke, new to a city, couple would do. We went to a local sushi restaurant for lunch and charged a meal we couldn't afford.

With all the bumps along the road and the constant insecurities then about how we were going to make it, we did. I look back at those times and remember how hungry we were to achieve something together. How even though the smallest things could break the bank, we were happy, crazy happy really and in some ways a lot less stressed than today.

As I am sitting across from potential employees during the interviews I am looking for those same traits I possessed ten years ago. The hungry to please look. The I really need a job look. The just give me a chance and you won't be sorry look. The this is the only suit I have, what will I wear for a second interview look.

They look back at me confidently and ask me what types of advancement is available, do we offer flexible work time, and what is the pay. Things have most definitely changed, but I wouldn't trade that time in my life for anything. We got to where we are today together and it still provides us with a chuckle every now and then. Some of the best memories truly rise up from some of the toughest times.