The Skyies the Limit

Sometime in 2003 during my graduation ceromony, two things I listened to were to serve, and that the sky was the limit.  Beyond the college years and advice job ads gave me a new lifestyle.  Reading the want ads all over the country twisted and turned my resume for years.  I blew up my email with resumes to jobs requiring submission of cover letter and resumes.  Buying books of stamps to mail out the instructed mailing of resumes and or cover letters became second nature.

Interview articles, videos, and job networking advice on interviews gave my mom and I new wardrobe ideas every year, and thousands of dollars in shoes and uniforms.  As you can see the career of change starts at home.

The Skys the Limit

The Skies the Limit

When the last year came for us college students at Indiana University, there was a sense of freedom like nothing that could be imagined by anyone else in the universe.  There was electricity in the air that covered the sky June 2003.  If it was raining we didn't know and if it was a day of sunshine we didn't care.  It was time.  From Freshman year to Senior Year students were prepared and trained through courses, tests, papers, and books to launch into the workforce with a career rolled out for us at our feet.  No matter what life brings students are able to pick up dust themselves off and continue on a journey of a career path where the skies the limit.  We were told that service is number one. 

By
Kathy
Reyna

In circles I turn with seasons.  If you made it to this part of the blog you will see that writing is obediance and a discipline of practice to choose to do for a focused reader.  Mistakes.  Mistakes?   Okay lets just go over the parts of wholeness.  First, organization and to be organized means to have maybe no coffee or other stains on you job application.  Organization and neatness could mean cleanliness which is a virtue along with patience and peace.  Lets see the connection:  When you go into a place of employment to ask for a job, depending on the time in your life you may change your wardrobe, your hair, and maybe your jewelry around but the application for work never changes.

Sometimes you will bite off more than you can chew and so I've been advised to just spit it out.  For example,  your life may seem big and out of order but it real isn't because you can only do one thing at a time.  I read this from a .95 cent pamplet called Acceptance but read what you want.  Back to the job application if you are like me you will be sure that the more you hand out the more jobs will pour on you and water your unemployment garden and that will be a job in itself.

What is a job?  That is a whole other blog and lets just end this blog saying that filling out a paper copy of a job application can require a lot of information that is always the same:  Your full name and high school or GED information, personal or work references which will change sometimes.  You'll be asked if you attended a trade school or correspondence school and if you committed a crime.  Military service is also a part of the job application. 

Then on tiny little lines you will squeeze in the former employers starting with the most present and the dates, addresses, name, salary, position, duties, and reason for leaving each employer.  Here you will most likely need to take a small break before starting this section to get a cup of water or a breather then very neatly and small write in the most valueable answers to all these areas of job information requested.  On the back side if you don't get a survey or additional paperwork of approval mostly questions about you, you just sign then at the bottom after reading authorization passages which can run longer than you pen or computer time limit before erasing the entire application.

Once Upon an Employee

My mom, college career counselor from IUN, IU SPEA Career Development Office, and many others of different experiences related to circles of career avenues will share with you the natures of change and growth as you go through it yourself to focus on your straight path so to speak.  Years will pass depending on your choices and thought process which sounds cut and dry because it is so to write.  "Live through this with me and I swear that I will die for you."  Courtney Love, Doll Parts. 

That song sums up the walk of the workforce in a artistic sense of the 90's sped up into the millenium.  (awkward moment)  ok back to mom.  Yes,  moving home can rip you right out of the clouds and into reality and that is vital for maturity and balance maybe for some.  Lists and lists of employers to apply to can get very tedious at times, and an interview and slip through your fingers if you decide to do one small thing.  I've driven myself up a wall wondering too much about that. Cutting corners is well known to areas of life that maybe need to be cut such as too many job applications.  For instance, I began to notice coffee stains on my job applications, and speedy hand writing.  I've misplaced myjob references many times along with job adresses, and salaries. 

The consistancy has been in my SSC, name, education, reason for leaving employers, and signature.  Usually I will write open for salary, and start of date or schedule listing.  Many areas have been constants in my job applications such as these areas along with work authorization yes and no Q's. 


The winds were cool and the skies were gray in Texas the week grandfathers funeral was being held.  The companies Human Resources Department  allowed the call for a potential employee to get a chance of an interview.  The interview was short after a handful of phone calls to the HR that ranged for a couple months with several other instructions from them to be followed about the resume and interview set up times to come in.

The moment the interview was approved the relief was coloring in the pale face of an eager employee whose heart was for the Lord.  Everything flashed before the new employees eyes the one out of three jobs held in good chances for hire finally brought her in with open arms and training!  It was all so fast suddenly and the new employee felt somehow stronger and never more thankful.

Back home for one and half months another employee with potential is thanked for her hard work, brought in for evaluations to areas of where to be improved and is recognized as hard working and with strong scores in certain areas of the position and other areas needing work with only two more months of evaluation before they decide the trained employee is ready and grown in work performance improvement.

Month two begins and many new problems arise and the employees uncle dies in Texas. The death effects the employee more than imagined and work performance at the moment she is to be improving wanes and slips powerlessly through the new trainee and sadly the employee feels more and more frightened and discouraged keeping hope for getting through another week just another week closer to finishing her improvements as new training tasks are being brought in her efforts to show learning and eagerness to improve her areas that need correction.

One one shift when the family come home from an uncles funeral the family is then effected a few days upon return that a job is terminated.  A missed area of improvement was the reason for the once eager and quickly waning employee who had no idea that those little areas of the day such as following the rules, communication, and possible keeping the washed uniform and lunches going consistently were so important for maybe just one more week with no excuses.

Tiny Tips in the Kitchen

1.  After eating anything that sticks or hardens for example cereal, rice, cheese or any kind of sauce fill it with water to the top of the bowl or soak in sink if a plate.  Then you can wash it easier the next day, or if you don't have a dish washer.  Or if you only have one dish and don't need to start the dish washer yet.

2.  At the bottom of every sink there is food particles that fill the drain filter cup.  Clear it out each moment you see its full to the very last particle for example the tiniest onion slice, noodle, or piece of lettuce.  Doing this will solve the problems of a clogged, dirty or smelly sink.

Every Step a Battle: Finding a Job

Looking for work.  There is gas, the clothes, the time it will take to get a job, have the skills, and right attitude. And to be ready to fill out tax forms, application, interview, and to wait for a call back.  Then there is the moment of truth, answering the question,  "Why do you want this job?"  This is the ice breaker of all interview questions because it is the only time your heart rings and the colors of your personality flair in the response to this one question.

The clock is ticking, minds are churning, and you the job candidates heart is burning.  You start to wonder by the second the idea of the position comes to mind and you see that the resources are all right in front of you from the advertisement to the contact information.  You begin to research the company first and notice that there isn't that much on the web site that you feel you can grasp and your palms begin to sweat.  You make the telephone call to the general company and the switch board operator transfers your call a few times as it bumps back to her before you get a voice mail of the human resources office.  Then for the companies or agencies that don't have such a department as human resources, you ask to speak to the hiring manager.

You begin to feel the tension when they tell you that they are busy or not in right now and you ask them what a better time to call would be as you refrain from giving a message for them to relay to the hiring manager.  While the employee on duty asked you for a message you keep if brief as a little goes a long way as you know and put a little check mark or notation near the company for your files.

Moving on to the next company you will notice that the same thing occurs and its risky since the hour you call is suggested which is near opening, and calling around noon as you may have noticed from the time you graduated school is lunch time and you'll most likely get a voice mail box in which may be full and you have better luck then to call back without the pressure of thinking if you should wait for them to return your voice mail or call back in an hour.  Either way you want to follow up on your application, or ask for an informational interview, and keep plugging away after hearing from several companies in two days that they are not hiring. 

Maybe all this is just the articles and research you have been reading about mixed with the news of the economy.  You know from experience that every company is different in handling their hiring procedures and the one that is a good match for you is the one that works for you. 

Mr. K The Inventor

The sun and rain hit the pavement hard right through the neighborhood trees.  It was the month of March and summer was just a long stretch of warmth coming to the door steps of rigid side walk on the north side of Chicago.  A quick charm twinkled behind broken bifocals taped up to the side of an elderly worker whose voice and experience for a sale were 8 decades in the making.

Mr. K wanted more, he enjoyed the lifestyle.  His busy mind was storming with ideas and with calm hands and a keen sense for negotiation. He was 2-4 business deals in with elevator contracts signed and hired contractors 2 months into implementation.  Two Chicago churches, one on the south side of Comiskey Park and one on east side of Skokie, Illinois is where these transportation devices were being built.  Day after day he spent at the sites keeping an eye on the progress of the elevator sales.

There wasn't a single day that went by that he would not think of his daughter who lived on out west, and his dreams of one day uniting in harmony away from the seeming estrangement from the long cold winters of Chicago and the difficult years of illness and old age.  There was no sign of sorrow or despair in the twinkling eyes of Mr. Kent.  His long life is spent building houses and some years instructing real estate courses.   He enjoyed the casinos in northwest shores of Lake Michigan.

His dinner buffet card at the casino was redeemed by VIP qualifications and Mr. Kent enjoys reading his horoscope and buying a lotto ticket.  It was the little things that counted most and often challenged young Geraldine and her ambitious and competitive spirit full of eagerness. Mr. Kent focused on sharpening her weaknesses and building her character as she floundered aimlessly into his office day after day.  There was a certain angle that his chairs needed to be facing, and nothing in his office could be touched with out his conscent.  It was office boot camp if there was one, and Geraldine found no solace in the other secretary. Then there was the one day Geraldine took the water container and watered the artificial plant just to see if Mr. Kent would notice her.  She knew the plant wasn't real and wanted to see if he knew that she knew and was doing it to show him that she wasn't the thing he expected her to be.  In other words she just wanted to show him to cool it, chill out, relax, and she began giggling to herself quietly.



"Stop on the way to buying my sandwich to the post office to drop off this my mail."  Mr. Kent instructed softly.

"Ok, " answered Geraldine.

Often Mr. Kent would have Geraldine repeat his instructions such as how he liked his coffee and sandwich and then made Geraldine repeat it every day back to him.  Most of the time he would let her go without a word and she would come back with the wrong coffee or sandwich order blaming the fast food restaurant servers.  She was very certain that she asked for the right instructions and eventually learned not to blame anyone and just to check the orders twice her self.

She often was instructed to hull around a big vacuum cleaner and vacuum the 1000 square foot office.  Then in between her confidence and certainty that this task was something she could complete on her own, Mr. Kent would interrupt her and tell her that she missed the spot over there and that she needed to move the vacuum in the manner and style he was moving it.  This often blew Geraldine's patience and over time adapted to strengthening her temper and moodiness from the little things that Mr. Kent spent time with her on during her time at his office.

The "Message to Garcia,"  was instructed for young Geraldine to read at home the first day she began working and learned not to speak about out of work stuff or ask questions about anything.  She was trained to write neater, pay attention to detail, and focus when she struggled so hard not to day dream while in Mr. Kent's presence.  She was quick to follow advice and choose her battles wisely when international phone services would keep her on hold or send her across the world while she was waiting to pay a bill for Mr. Kent.

When the fax machine had a paper jam or the computer internet was slow, she found it miserable to be accused of its problems week after week and yet responded gracefully most of the time to Mr. Kent's trusty remarks toward her.  When he would spend long moments on the telephone Geraldine would either step out of the office or finish up on a task such as creating business cards.  Mr. Kent sometimes sensed falsely that young Geraldine wasn't paying attention and would send her home without pay for the day until she put her foot down.

"You Mr. Kent will pay me for the day!"  She said assertively.

"I'm lowering your pay to $6.00. "  He stated.

Mr. Kent was a tall strong elderly in his early 80's with old fashion logic.  He was valued not for his personality, charm, or conduct but for his experience, patience, knowledge, wisdom, stability, kindness, loyalty, honesty, and wealth of integrity.  It was imaginable to know unless you were in his shoes what it was like to be Mr. Kent.  Geraldine was valued for her determination, diligence, loyalty, commitment, kindness, grace, charm, maturity, and for her sense of humor and good personality.  She was likeable in every way and that was why Mr. Kent enjoyed her company and tolerated her so easily.

Today My. K is snug away scurrying to get from point A to make point B in his fashion.  The underlying feelings of how to spell out what to say here are rocky.

It is never to late to start growing.

Its November 1, 2011 in Highland, Indiana.  Sleep wasn't pleasant last night, and I kept my eyes wide open planning and figuring out problems in bed.  Yesterdays Halloween party was short and sweet as
I arrived during the last hour of the party.  I ate more pizza, and a cream puff while sitting around a fire with my wonderful cousins Peter, Jack, and Victoria.  My cousin Mark left shortly as I arrived with his dad.  I wasn't prepared to see them I thought when I pulled to the curb to park.  My mind went blank, and I grew hostile to the environment after turning off the radio, and leaving behind my cell phone in the car.

As I began to parallel park between two big vans I heard a loud slap on the back of the car I was driving and it wasn't the van behind me it was my Aunt Cecil who told me not to move.  I felt my blood begin to curdle and sparks of rage in which I may have inherited from my dads style, burning up the surface of my skin.  Control yourself I wish I would have thought and probably didnt since I ignored her and just pulled out from between my snug parking job believing it would be the right thing to do.

The cold air and the smoky fire going out in the grill was pleasant for the occasion.  Time for that moment stood still, and the dark night carried me into listening to the wise cracks and jokes from my cousins and buckets of laughter with no surprise.  Upon leaving that night, I stoppped to walk with my young cousin Victoria and confidently told her I am turning out like my mom. I had subtle delirium tickling my words as I thought about how hard I tried for a few seasons to be the opposite of mother creating my own havoc and disaster upon my life.  Right away young Victoria an aspiring actress in theater told me that thats a good thing! "To be like your mother!"  She exclaimed.

I could write pages on my cousins and most likely will in my future as precious and wonderful and they are, and as we parted ways that night, I went to bed around 10:00p and was up all through the night from 3am until 6am calling friends, and my boyfriend until someone answered.  I was left imagining them all partying in costumes through the night of October 2011 without me.