Applications

I finish my current job in March, and so it’s already time to start filling out applications for future positions.

And inevitably applications are always accompanied by rejection letters. I just got my first rejection notice today.

It was for the Peace Boat, which was only a 3-month volunteer position. So it isn’t quite the same as getting rejected for a full job (although I’m sure I’ll have my fair share of that soon enough as well), although it was something I had wanted to do for a while.

At least I was not surprised. When I sent the application packet into the mail last week, I knew it was pretty crappy. If there was any sort of competition (and apparently there always is for volunteer positions), I didn’t doubt that I would be one of the first ones out.

For the application I had to design 3 sample English lessons. Although this is what I do everyday, I usually just through stuff together from bits and pieces of other lessons, or use the materials provided by my company. Plus obviously on an application you want to put something special, rather than just an average “practice how to introduce yourself in English” lesson. When it came to designing original special lesson that would be evaluated on an application, I completely froze.

For one thing originality is not my strong point. When I was doing my teacher aiding at Pathfinders High school, I remember a teacher took me aside once and said, “Look, I know all you student teachers feel like you need to work real hard to come up with your own lessons, but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you go into a classroom. There are loads of materials and lesson plans already out there, and there’s nothing wrong with using them.” And I have really followed that advice.

Also I needed to design a non-language related activity I would like to organize on the boat. Again, a complete blank. I tried to think of what special talents or skills that I had. (Apparently past examples featured things like DJ parties or Drum lessons). I came to the conclusion that I had absolutely no talents.

Eventually I decided it was a bit over my head. The kind of people who get accepted for these positions are people who had been camp consulers in high school, or R.A.s at College. They are not people like me who half ass their way through life and try and get by everything with the least amount of effort possible.

The only reason I finished the application was because I would be out of a job by March, and I knew I couldn’t start getting scared off by these things. But writing an application is the worst thing ever. Man, do I really hate doing applications. I don’t think there’s anything I wouldn’t rather do instead of writing applications.

It is amazing what I would rather do instead.

Last Weekend I deliberately stayed in and turned down social invitations to work on the application. Instead I ended up doing everything except. I even cleaned my apartment, and organized my bills, and then made a special trip to the store to pay all the bills I was late on. That’s how much I hate applications.

I do throw a lot of junk up on this blog, and although to a certain extent that probably helps my writing, to a certain extent it doesn’t. It’s hard for me to structure myself after being so used to blogging. Usually when I blog I have a couple free class periods in the afternoon, I sit down at the computer with a cup of coffee, and I think: “So, what do I feel like writing about today?” I’m not used to disciplining myself into being concise and organized, and I felt it writing those applications. My brain still hurts.

Finally at the last minute I threw an application together, putting in very average and unexciting lesson plans, and designing an “Earth Day Treasure Hunt” as my non-language activity. I got the thing in the mail just under the deadline. It really sucked hard core. I’m a bit disappointed by the rejection notice, but not surprised.

Link of the Day
Via Tom Tomorrow: A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."