Continued from Mennonites Don't Cry
I kept going back to the Job Finding Club for something to
do. Kim typed up a resume for me but it had very little writing on it. When I
first started coming, I didn’t even know what a resume was and now I had my
very own. I felt so proud of my first resume.
Mark, the man that sat beside me felt sorry for me and began
calling me to try and help but, really, there was nothing anyone could do. There
was no job out there for me. It was ridiculously clear that I should be going
to school.
Mark encouraged me to just keep coming to the club and I
did. While looking through the classified job ads of the local newspaper, Mark read an
add of an embroidery shop that was looking to hire experienced sewers. I got all
excited and thought that that could be
the break I had been hoping for.
Everyone at the club dropped what they were working on and
practiced interviewing me. My head was
spinning. I had never been asked that many questions about myself. “What is
your greatest strength?” “What is your weakness?” “Where do you see yourself in five
years?”
All I could think of was, “It is so hot and stuffy in this
room that it’s hard to breathe.” I was wearing a long-sleeved dark-colored dress that went up to my neck and
below my knees as well as socks. All I could think about was how nice it would
be to be able to wear shorts and a white t-shirt and take these socks off. But,
I was afraid that a Low German person would see me and tell my mom in Mexico,
and then I would be in big trouble.
Kim had faxed my resume to that embroidery place and, sure
enough, they called me the next day to come for an interview. Kim drove me to
the interview and tried to keep me calm on the way there but it wasn’t working. I was anything but calm. I walked in and
there were ten people waiting to be interviewed. I thought, “Oh crap! I don’t
have a fighting chance against these people.” They all looked so confident.
I thought I should have put on shorts that day, just for the
day, so I would blend in a little more but, nope, I couldn’t risk it. So there
I was in my dress, socks, and sandals and people were staring at me again. A
very large woman was wearing really short shorts and a low cut tee-shirt. You could see most of her mountains. I had a
hard time focusing on what she was saying.
She said, “Thank you all for coming. We had a really rough
start this morning. The boss is sick and for that reason, she couldn’t make it in, then our air conditioner broke, so
please bear with me.”
I began to wonder where they were keeping this bear she
talked about. I was hoping it wouldn’t come into the room while I was there. I
heard that there were bears in Canada but I had no idea that they would keep
them at an embroidery shop.
I was sweating like I never had before, not even in Mexico. It
was so hot in there but we all stayed in that room as she began asking
questions. I just smiled, nodded my head as everyone else was asking and answering
the questions. I wondered if I should
say, “I had a SIN card.” But I didn’t. I
thought if I didn’t say anything I would have a better chance of getting the job. And if I got the job then I
could prove it to them that I could be a hard worker.
She told us that the job paid eight dollars an hour, which
was fifty cents more than I was getting at the factory where I had worked. I
thought that was awesome and really hoped
that I would get the job.
For a while, the woman
paid close attention to how we interacted
and responded to each other and then she said, “Okay, thank you all for coming
and you will hear from us before the end of
the week.”
Kim came back to pick me up with an air-conditioned car and
a nice cold seven-up. She was the nicest person I had met in Canada, for sure!
I was so happy and tempted to hug her, I had
seen people do that on TV when they were feeling happy like I was. But I didn’t
because I was way too sweaty and I wasn’t used to hugging people. Low German
people didn’t hug. My Low German thoughts scolded me, “What are you thinking
Anna? schäm de!”
When we got back to the club Kim said, “Let’s give Anna a
big round of applause. She is the first out of this group to get an interview.”
I turned red like a tomato again. I wasn’t used to getting
attention like that. Mark was so happy for me, he gave me a hug. It was
awkward, nice, and weird all at the same time. I felt like he was getting a bit too
friendly toward me, but I thought, “what
do I know about friendships anyways, let alone friendships between men and
women?” Click here to continue reading my story.
