Answered Prayers

After 2 years of praying to get a job, I finally got one :) As most of you know, my family does not have any income atm and so I really wanted to get a part-time job to help pay for certain bills even if I'm not required to or just be able to take my parents out for dinner and movies and the likes.

Over the last two years, I had applied for many different jobs, went around store to store on my street asking if they were hiring, filled many online application forms, asked friends for references, praying endlessly but all to no avail. Some promised to call but never did, some told me flat out they weren't hiring or I didn't have enough experience, some forms were tricky which required me to fill in information I just don't have since I used to live in Malaysia and the list goes on.

I was frustrated, bitter, sour, angry.

Finding jobs was never this hard for me. Back in Malaysia, all I had to do was ask around in church and I'll have a number to choose from. Here, I had no one. Daddy always told me that when the time is right, God will give me the job I need and I just have to trust Him and in the meantime, just keep on praying. Which I did but after endless rejections, I kind of lost faith in those words and my prayers started taking on a hollow quality.

But back to this new job of mine....

The special thing about this job is not because I finally got one, but the path which brought me to it. It all started since last spring where I took both Biology and English (among others) and one of my classmates was coincidentally in both of my classes. Since he sat behind me in English, we sort of became friends, although we never interacted in Biology due to the vast classroom and different lab groups. Near the end of the semester, I needed a ride for a Bio field trip and for some reason, my group mates couldn't accommodate me and right at the last moment, I spotted him walking out the door, gave chase and managed to secure a ride. Which was where I met this female group mate of his who told me that her workplace was hiring and would love someone bilingual.

I was ecstatic.

But right after she promised to get me the application form, the store decided to run out of one so I had to resort to online means which to my dismay, simply couldn't be found. Since it was the end of the semester, we never saw each other again and I finally let go and gave up.

Life went on as usual. Applying continuously and getting rejected time after time. I was extremely fed up.

Then one day, we randomly found Radio Shack, which has another main story altogether of divine intervention to it saved for another day, and hung on their glass doors was the sign 'we are currently hiring'. After I was done asking the nice guy working there for details and was ready to leave, he suddenly paused, turned back to me and told me one very important tip which no one ever thought to mention to me at all: 'CALL THEM. After you've sent in the forms, call them. Keep on calling them until you get an interview and after you get one, call them again to ask how its going. That was how I got the job. I kept calling till they asked me to come in for an interview :)'

I actually never applied to that store in the end but that comment made a world of difference for me. So simple a tip till everyone chose to omit it but extremely vital to someone looking to actually snag a job.

This was already December of last year, a far cry from Spring since but suddenly the store mentioned by that girl classmate then sprang back into my mind and I thought why not give it another shot? So I went down to Victoria's Secret, got a form, filled it out and handed it to wonders of wonders, the very same classmate of mine who happened to be on shift that very hour.

A week passed and I took Radio Shack guy's tip to heart and called the store manager, who told me she never received my form and doesn't know of any staff by my classmate name -____- Ok that is a damper and I will find out if she really does exist the next time I go to work. Would be mad creepy if she doesn't. Exist I mean.

But anyway, the manager told me to come down and personally fill one out again and hand it directly to her which was good because face to face makes a more lasting impression imo :) A week after that, I called again and a few more times actually until my name is firmly etched into her memory (lol) and I'm called in for an interview. Was about to call her again days after the interview but she called me first to tell me I got it :D

Needless to say, I WAS MAD HAPPY!

Even happier again when I found out I was given another better job position than what I applied for too!

But what surprised and touched me was finding out that both my managers are devout Christians. One who was a pastor before too. Suddenly, I realized that I am in good hands and He was looking out for me all along. And so I paused and took some time to reflect back and realized that He was always there and had indeed heard my every prayer but I couldn't hear His answers through the thick fog of frustration clouding me. Or even if I did, I didn't like it. Never mind if its for my own good and I secretly knew it.

Truth to be told, I couldn't have handled a job if I had gotten it last Spring since I was taking 17 units and had no spare time at all. Summer was a bad time too as my dad was undergoing surgery and Fall was crucial to me as it was the season for university applications (I'm a transfer student) and me getting straight A's that season was extremely vital (I took Physics which was hellish for me trying to understand it). Plus I had applied to take the JLPT (which I passed btw yay!) and that alone was stressful enough as I had taken a level more advance to what I was currently learning. I think a job would have killed me at that point. The year before that? I had just gotten here and was too busy trying to learn my ways around LA.

So yes, this time was the right time as its sort of my 'honeymoon' period before I transfer out to a more grueling academic institution. When I applied for this job and called the manager, I subtly felt that this was the right moment. However, I still had doubts then after googling the store and found some disparaging comments made by past employees of its other chain stores and had actually applied for another job closer to home but was later turned down by the store manager lol and so I re-focused all my energies back to Victoria's Secret. And after finding out about my managers, I think I can safely say this was the right choice.

Many would say its all coincidences and I'm just trying to thread a string through unrelated events to make them seem related but I know better. It really isn't. I sincerely believe everything goes according to His plan and timing as long as we don't deviate from it. It doesn't mean I am very patient all the time (goodness knows how rebellious and stubborn I can be) even after knowing this already and I wonder why He even bother with me still cuz I would have abandoned me a long long loooong time ago but at the end of the day, its enough for me to know that He still cares and this hope is what keeps me going again in the right direction, like a faith fuel of sorts. And this is the reason for this post. To serve as a reminder of His faithfulness during my future moments of utter bleakness and despair so I will never forget His goodness. To remind myself that I just have to be more patient and leave things into His hands as I am not the expertise here.

So thank you Jesus for answering my prayers and giving me this job ♥