Okay, so anyone who knows me can attest to my unnatural memorization of movie lines and recreation of movie scenes. On the one part I think it's in direct correlation to being a child of the 80's, but I also think a good chunk of the reason is that my brain is somehow hardwired to latch onto that stuff. Therefore I have decided to start putting those great movie moments into action in my own life.
We've all had a time where we were dealt a crushing, "No." Whether it was from a jilted lover, the food truck that just ran out of dumplings, or a career opportunity that was stopped in its tracks.
Sample Real-life Movie Moment:
I recently got engaged, and my fiance` and I are REALLY big into food trucks. The idea, the deliciousness, the scene...everything about it. Long story short, we figured rather than having some horrible buffet, or shiny plates of quasi-warm wooden chicken, we'd skip the caterer and go with something we know and love. We've decided that for our wedding, we'll feed our guests hot-off-the-truck gourmet street food. In our quest to find the perfect truck, we came across this new one with authentic Taiwanese food. Being that my fiance` and his family are from Taiwan, we had that truck on the top of our priority list. One busy Friday afternoon we hopped on Twitter, found the truck's location for the day, and drove from the middle of Queens to the Financial District in white-knuckled traffic chaos. When we were about fifty feet away from our destination, the damn truck drove right passed us! We were furious. We whipped the car around, and from the passenger seat I yelled into the truck's window, "Hey, you said you'd be here until 2pm. It's only 1:15!" And much to my surprise the young driver yelled back, with a boyish and apologetic smile, "We sold out." My face must have dropped; I probably looked like a kicked puppy. We did our best to keep pace with the truck, and this time I hung out the window a bit more and shouted, "But we want to hire you for our wedding. We just drove all the way here from Queens just to taste your food!" Pout still firmly affixed to my lower lip, a woman inside the truck poked her head into the conversation and said, "Hold on." I felt the excitement building. Something cool was going to happen. Their truck was moving ahead, we moved up, we moved ahead, they caught up— very spine-tingling stuff. We were coming to a fork in the road, seriously we were, and she shouts, "Catch" and just like that a glorious bag of hot, fresh foodtruck leftovers leaped into my arms. It was amazing! The food I mean, the food was totally amazing.
You see, we easily could have had the canned weh, weh, wehhhhh sound effect win, and driven away defeated. But no, I say No! We left with a steaming-hot bag of Taiwanese goodies. And that's simply because we wouldn't take no for an answer.
I decided to apply this same movie principle to a seemingly failed job opportunity. I had finally found it, THE perfect literary home for myself, in a small indie press here in the city. I had a great phone interview, and then an amazing in-person interview where I fell out-of-love with the idea of the company, and instantly in love with the actual company and its employees. Despite the general awesome feeling I went home with, I ultimately did not get the position. It was a lack of experience that cost me, and I simply couldn't accept that as a good enough reason to let that dream go. I thought to myself, I have to fix this. So rather than puffing myself up and touting, "you can't win 'em all ol' girl," I set my mind to solving the problem. I wrote the company a genuine and heart-felt letter, about how much I was drawn to the company. About my passion and determination to follow my career path in the face of any and all adversity, and more importantly, how I was willing to compromise and jump on board as an intern, if they would have me.
It's like in those cliche` romantic comedies when the girl says "No" and tries the slam the door on Senor Handsome's face, but instead of accepting her dismissal he slams his sneaker into the crack of the door and says, "Wait!" The door usually opens, right? I mean even if it isn't in that moment, eventually he gets the girl. So, I decided this was as good a time as any to slam my sneaker in the closing crack of opportunity's door and shout "Wait!" Now I didn't do this because I was desperate for a job, or because I liked location of their office, that would just be stupid. I was so persistent because I felt something when I thought about this company. When I read articles about their books or their staff, I was moved, interested, inspired! That is the kind of place I want to work. Those are the kinds of people I want to learn from, because somehow they've figured it out. How to be successful and happy. How to find a job you love so much it never feels like work. Some of you might see getting an unpaid internship vs. a paid position as a loss, but I view it as an incredible gain. Now I have the opportunity to experience working in that environment, but more importantly, that employer will finally have the chance to see what I can do as a potential employee.
I am completely satisfied.
So when it's a career that you really want, a place and a position that your own heart is tugging toward, it may be the right moment to let a high-speed chase ensue, or to shout, or to jam your foot in the door. I mean, what's the worst case scenario? They already said no.
~Michelle In Turn
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