Brunzzz Brunzzz Brunzzz…. It was 6:00am Goddamnit, Imma hit snooze, I’ll get up in one minute, just one more minute, I promise I’ll open my eyes and get up in a minute… “Get up, you’re gonna be late, why aren’t you getting ready yet??!!!!” my mother yelled I quickly opened my eyes and it was already 6:35 am. Aw SHIT! I quickly got out of bed, sprinted to the restroom and turned on the shower water. “I gotta cut this shower to 5 minutes. Why do I always do this and jeopardize myself to be pressed on time?” I muttered to myself in my head. Of all the days I chose to not get on time, I definitely chose the wrong day. Today was the day I got my job interview at a laboratory and it happened to be my first job interview in my life. I was a recent graduate college and my mother has been nagging me constantly on getting a job despite the scarcity of opportunities in the workforce. I sent out my resume to over 25 places and only got 3 interviews so far. My mother who was already not pleased with the fact I was living at home is even more pissed that I’m unemployed after graduating from college for a few months. She was tired of me repeatedly telling her that it takes time and it wasn’t easy to find jobs at all. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a slacker as a college student, I was a biology major with a minor in chemistry. However, my mother was stubborn and didn’t take any of my “excuses.” After jumping out the shower and putting on my shirt and tie, I rushed downstairs for breakfast. I shoved the PB&J down my mouth and downed my cup of coffee. “Even as a college graduate, you’re still not responsible enough to wake up on time and be an adult” scolded my mother with a disappointed look. I shut down my ears and just blocked out the rest of the scolding she had coming for me and proceeded to quickly finish breakfast and went on to brushing my teeth and doing some last minute grooming. I looked in the mirror to shamelessly check myself out and thought, “Damn I look pretty good, looking like I could be on next month’s cover of GQ.” I went back downstairs and went to the garage and before I got in my car, my mother stopped me. “Good luck, you can do this” She then handed me an extra cup of coffee that she placed in a plastic cup with a lid on. I went on driving on the I-5 N freeway entrance towards Los Angeles and right when I got on the freeway, I was flooded with the hoard of cars that were like a school of fish. The notorious LA traffic. As I waited in traffics, I was slowly losing my patience with each minutes passing by. I started to freak out about not making it on time and I could hear the doubtful voices in my head.

What if I were to be late? Do I even know where to park my car? Where to meet my interviewer? Shit, finding these things would eat up and I might be even more late. FUCK! My hands started getting sweaty and I reached for the cup of coffee. I took a huge gulp that was more than I could drink and some of the coffee ended up raining on my face and worst of all, made its way on my light blue shirt and pants. Great! Just when I thought this day couldn’t get worse and this shit happens. I am so screwed. When I finally made it off the freeway, it was 7:50am and I had 10 minutes to get to the lab. Thank god the lab was less than 5 minutes from the freeway. I sped up my car so I could get there faster and hopefully a little bit earlier. As I continued driving for another 50 meter, I noticed blue then red lights flashing on my rear mirror. Well, just my luck right, the cops just had to get me. I pulled over to the side and was praying the cop would let me go after I told him the importance of this interview and that I was in a rush. “Sir, you were going 67 mph on a 45 mph speed limit road, license and registration please” I clumsily got out my wallet out of my dress pants and scrambled my license, credit cards, and registration together. I couldn’t get a hold of myself, my mind felt like a train wreck. I handed my license and registration over to the cops and just waited for the cop to come back. At this point, I was about to lose it, sweat was dripping onto my shirt and I could feel my back already drenched in sweat. Finally, the cops came back and handed me a white piece of paper, “That’s gonna be 190 dollars and on the ticket it has the location of the court and date this ticket has to be due and if you have any other questions you may…” I wasn’t even listening to the rest of the statement because all I could think of was my mother yelling the shit outta me when she finds out that I got a ticket for speeding that I couldn’t even pay for myself. “Officer sir, please, I’m on my way to a very important interview, I promise, I swear, I would never do this again. I learned my lesson, I’m really sorry officer” I begged with tears in my eyes “I’m sorry, I can’t let you go on this one young man, you were going over 20 miles over the speed limit. You can try going to court, other than that, I can’t do anything about it.” He handed me the ticket and I reluctantly grabbed it and shoved it into the little cabinet in car. I suddenly realized that I was already late, but I couldn’t risk speeding again since I already got my ass handed with the ticket. By the time I got to the parking lot, I just parked my car in any spot that didn’t have a handicap or “reserve” sign on it and I sprinted to the door. It was 8:12am, I was late, and everything was going downhill. At this point, I was praying that I would look smart and competent during the interview to compensate for my coffee stained shirt and tardiness. I asked the receptionist where Dr. Levaughn was and she took me to his office. “Good Morning, and you must be Chad right? greeted Dr. Levaughn. For the first 10 minutes of the interview, everything went smoothly and I was beginning to think that things could only go up. It wasn’t until he asked… “So I noticed on your transcript that you failed Organic Chemistry during your second year?” inquired Dr. Levaughn. Ah shit, he just had to ask about it, this isn’t looking good. I didn’t think he would be so nit picky and look at my individual grades since I had a fairly high cumulative GPA of 3.6. I guess that D in Organic Chemistry was a blemish that just had to be pointed out. “Umm well, I was a little carried away with partying, I mean, I was letting myself a bit too loose during that period of time and I didn’t act responsible.” Fuck, why did I say partying, god damnit stupid me. “But as you can see I did make it up the second time with a B+ in the class” Dr. Levaughn continued to stare at my resume without showing any expression. God, this is the worst, at least have some emotions or say something so at least I know where this interview is going. Finally, Dr. Levaughn looked at me with a stoic expression and said “So tell me about your experience working in the laboratory” At the moment, I wanted to loosen up the pace and mood of the interview, so I thought I would talk about my lab experience in a light-hearted manner. “Uh, so when I first started working in Dr. Jebson’s laboratory during my third year of college, I had no laboratory experience and everything was new. It was so unfamiliar that when I first saw a centrifuge machine I jumped up and said, “Whao, what’s a noisy washing machine doing in this lab?!” Dr. Levaughn looked at me with an expression that spelled, “WTF did you just say, are you a dumbass, that was the stupidest thing ever.” Fuck, Fuck, FUCK. Alright I really screwed up, now quickly think of something to say to make up for it. My mind froze and I blanked out. I sat there, looked at Dr. Levaughn, and I was ready to accept my fate of not getting this job. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the rest of the interview since at the time I felt it was pointless to even try since I was bound not to get the job. As I walked out the door, I felt I hit rock bottom and I didn’t want to go home like a loser. On the drive back home, I just reflected on myself and remembered the countless failures I had in life. I couldn’t recall ever feeling this sad. After facing what I thought at the time was the worst time of my life, everything in life only got better since. I was stuck with the stupid traffic ticket, but a few days before Christmas, I received a phone call from Dr. Levaughn that I got the job, which till this day I still think was a Christmas miracle. I worked at the laboratory for a few years until I applied for my next job. I ended up getting a good letter of recommendation from Dr. Levaughn which was very helpful in landing my next job. Everything turned out fine at the end, but I will always remember that interview for the rest of my life.