My father, another of America's recent additions to the growing class of the gainfully unemployed, is rather enjoying his free time during unemployment (or what he refers to as his 'early retirement'). When he's not visiting me in California or my sister in Portland, he spends much of his time at the gym in my hometown working out and socializing or taking my grandma (his mother) on various errands. A few days ago while he was at the gym, he met a guy I went to high school with, Aaron Werner.
I met Aaron junior year in Mr. Sabotky's American History class. He sat to my immediate right. It was in history class that we became friends, a chance statistic not entirely likely. In a class of 435 people, there were many students I barely knew and/or with whom I never shared a single class within the four years of high school. We were unlikely friends for the simple fact that we swung in different social circles, but luckily for us, neither one of us much cared about the social circle boundaries some of our peers so fiercely defended.
For two years Aaron and I were friends, and then we went out separate ways after graduation. (This was a time before email, text messaging, and Facebook had exploded -- it was more common to lose touch back then.) I don't remember a lot about my friendship with Aaron, other than I really enjoyed his company and he was pretty much the nicest guy in the world. (He may have had a crush on me but I never would have known for sure because he was too polite to say so, and I had a boyfriend.) I also couldn't tell you if he got A's, B's, C's, D's or F's in high school. Aaron didn't easily fit into any one high school social class (jocks, geeks, burnouts, thespians, etc.). He was just a nice guy.
I'm pretty sure that I saw Aaron within the last 6 years or so. I swear it was at the ten-year reunion that he and someone else pitched in and bought the attendees another barrel of beer when the beer ran dry. I think this because when my dad mentioned that he was married and owned his own landscaping business, both of those facts sounded very familiar.
Apparently he didn't remember what I said I had been doing post high school. With great anticipation he asked my father, What did she end up being? A doctor? A lawyer?
My dad and I got a good laugh over Aaron's ambitions for me. In reality, my current status of unemployed couldn't be further from Aaron's ideals. I'm not sure if it's funny or sad that Aaron had such a high opinion of me and that I didn't end up meeting his expectations. Or really even my own. Not yet anyway.
As it happens, Aerospace Company S never did call me back this week. For a few days this week, I toiled with the appropriate time to make my second phone call and what I should say when I called. I was set to call the recruiter back on Friday or Monday, I eventually decided.
Thursday night I hopped on the company web site just to see if they had posted my now unlikely future job. They had. In reading the description of the job I became resolute. I was not interested in the position. It was basically described as a back-up secretary position and only required two years of college education from the ideal candidate. With Aaron's lofty high school ambitions for me stuck in my mind, I decided I would pass on taking a job as a back-up secretary.
I was once valedictorian of my high school class for Christ's sake! I competed in Olympic trials!
The problem is, what have I done lately? Apparently I was most impressive in high school and the college years. As a 30-year-old I seem to be just floating. Not here. Nor there. Just all over. Maybe potential employers can sense that from glancing at my resume? I'm not sure.
A third employee at Aerospace Company S is going to take my resume to the recruiter who has for unknown reasons rejected me as a recruiting coordinator applicant. My thought is this: either the recruiter is going to be impressed I have so many people in my corner, so many people willing to vouch for me; or he's going to be really annoyed with my persistence and think I'm desperate.
In the mean time, I need to get back to my writing. Daniel was off all this week, and I'm ashamed to say we got very little done other than taking his dogs on walks or to the park. I did no writing, no job searching. Monday he'll be back to work, and so will I.
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