… And I’ve waited a long time, so great things are happening to me.
I’m sitting in Soto espresso, a coffee shop in Perth, drinking a coffee that tastes fantastic.
Actually, it would probably taste fantastic if they served me international roast, I’m feeling that good at the moment. Well, maybe not. International Roast is horrible.
Anyway, I’ve had a fantastic week that goes a long way to helping me forget the previous six months. Come back with me on a journey, back to January 2010. I’ve gone on holiday and am just outside Mandurah. I get an e-mail from a school that I taught violin at. It’s a week before term starts, and they inform me that they don’t have any students for me, and I won’t be required to teach in 2010.
Fantastic. Way to ruin a holiday. Knowing that a week out from term I was unlikely to find any work as a violin teacher, I turned my hand to looking for jobs in where I had experience – administration. “Surely, with two years experience as an administrative assistant, I should be able to find an admin job” I thought.
Or so I thought.
Three months in, and not even a glimmer. Not an interview. I eventually asked someone at the salvos if they had a job going, and there was a 0.6 position opening up. I applied, and was chosen for interview. “Fantastic! Finally a chance”
After giving what I thought was a really strong interview, I was really disappointed not to get the job. Like, super disappointed. Since becoming a salvo, I hadn’t missed drinking, but that day I really wanted one. I was strong, somehow, and had a coke instead, but it didn’t help the feeling. And I know a beer wouldn’t have helped either, but sometimes you feel like it can.
So back onto the search, and the jobs kept getting applied to, and I kept not getting interviews. My fiancée and I started to think about getting a house, and after finding one, was about to fill out the application only to discover that we didn’t really have enough to survive. We could make it, but it would be tight.
At this time, I was sending in about 10 applications a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. And still nothing. Until I found this job with the uniting church. It was a fantastic job, doing similar to what I was doing at the council of churches. So I applied, was accepted for interview, and then didn’t get the job. This time, I wasn’t so disappointed. I guess all the rejections had kind of made me expect to not get the job.
Eventually, my fiancée and I decided it was time to bite the bullet and apply for a rental. We found one we loved, and put an application in, not expecting much. How surprised we were to get a phone call later that day, telling us that we got the house!
My good news wasn’t to end there though. God had been with me all the time, and had a plan for my life. Later that day, I got a phone call offering my a job interview for a position at my old church. I accepted, but God had more in line for me, not just a job interview, but a job!
The next day, I got a phone call from the Uniting Church, saying that the person who got the position I applied for earlier didn’t work out, and they were as good as offering me the position pending an interview the next day.
I of course accepted, rescheduling my planned interview time just in case it didn’t work out. I needn’t have worried, after going over the new job description, they offered me the job, and I now start on Monday.
So, in less than a week, I have gone from working two days a week, wondering how and where we were going to live as a married couple, to having a house to rent, and a job which takes me up to full time equivalent! I’m so incredibly happy that I even wrote this long blog post all on my blackberry while sitting under a heater at soto’s getting slightly uncomfortably warm.
And with that done, I think I’ll go, have a bit of a walk along beaufort st, before picking up my fiancée from work (whom I now work close to, three days a week) and start a wonderful weekend moving into our house!
Ben Clapton 