Friday, September 12, 2014

"Someone Seeing Through"

I got a really nice e-mail from the activities director telling me I'd been a top choice but I didn't get the job.   
Bummer.

She said there'd been "a lot of interest in the position".
I hadn't realized this senior residence was a desirable place to work with lots of physical and human resources---it's in an affluent suburb, so I should have guessed. 

As I'd sat waiting in the lobby, I'd actually been a little worried about working there: 
the with-it residents sitting nearby were reading the New York Times and complaining about their investments. They were also talking about a bus trip to the grocery store--the most expensive one in the city. 
Working with the bored rich would not appeal to me.

But people with advanced memory loss have forgotten all about such matters! They exist in the present moment.

My activity had gone wonderfully, leading some women with memory loss in water coloring sunflowers and singing songs about the sun, such as "You Are My Sunshine". I loved it, and they obviously did too (for the moment) (the director said so too).

One woman had asked another, "What's that?" pointing to a corner of her swirly expressionistic painting. 

The painter had replied, "Someone seeing through."

Still from the film Enter the Void, seeing through the eye of a character on drugs.

So, I'm very disappointed---it's a bit disheartening to have done so well and not get the job.
I'm confident I can find a job in the field somewhere else, maybe grungier, but it's a drag that I have to keep job hunting, which I'm very slow about doing.
Oh well.
On we go...

5 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

Sorry to hear this. Their loss, I’d say.

deanna said...

Ugh. I agree; they missed out.

Twice, I've been "someone we'd have loved working with, but there was lots of interest and others more qualified applied..." so I know the disappointment. So sorry.

The right thing for you will present itself, I just know it.

Fresca said...

Thank you, Michael and Deanna.

(I do kind of think they made a mistake not to hire me. Ah well, someone else will, pleasegod.)

Zhoen said...

On the other hand, "well, keep me in mind for next time" is not an unreasonable response. You never know.

Fresca said...

ZHOEN: Yes, she said that herself--"I'll keep your resumé on hand..." But hopefully I'll be working somewhere else before she'd have any reason to use it.