November 27 last year I got a call from a friend of mine, urging me to submit the needed requirements for employment at Makati Medical Center Hospital, as apparently the deadline to beat for 2008 was the 28^th of November.  I thought and thought about it, but decided to postpone the actual submission to next year, since most of the documents needed weren’t in my hands at the time.  But Frederick, being the (extremely) good friend that he was, had made all the arrangements and calls so that said needed documents would reach me in time.  And they did reach me, and after a bit of a scramble, I made the deadline.

Then came the month-and-a-half wait for the call back.  It ate me up so much that it was already getting ridiculous.  Frederick had already started working there and had told me over the phone all of his experiences and whatnot.  I’ll admit it, I felt jealous.  There he was, making something out of himself while I was stuck at home, gaining weight and (in my mind) getting progressively stupider because I wasn’t doing or reading anything that was even remotely nursing related.

During our talks my hope was built up, I’m not going to lie.  I envisioned myself working in the said institution, walking down the halls of their wards, grabbing lunch somewhere in Ayala Avenue, and most importantly, getting paid.  It didn’t matter to me that the salary they were offering was infinitely lower than what UST Hospital was laying on the table; no, I just wanted that job.

Now those dreams are shattered. 

Yesterday afternoon a batch mate of mine from UST texted me, asking if Makati Med. Contacted me already, because they’ve just texted her about confirmation details.  Believe me when I say that I got literally weak in the knees when I read her message.  I had to sit down. 

What’s the big deal, you ask?  Well you see this girl and I submitted our requirements at the exact same time.  Our envelopes were next to each other.  This saddens me beyond words.  This is my first taste of rejection and I do really not like it.

I have a couple of theories why this happened: I might have messed up the requirements as I submitted a form downloaded off the internet and the proportions of the image were off, or they did call me yesterday, but I failed to pick up my phone.  There were three missed calls logged yesterday at ten A.M. 

How ironic that this happens to me during my campaign for optimism.  Me, the girl who’s been going around, sprinkling sugar and hope and all that crap around in hopes of a better life this year, just got sucker-punched in the ego big time.

So what am I going to do now, you ask?  Well after going into hysterics for a couple of hours, I’ve asked for advice from various people in my life and I’ve decided that I’ll give them another week to contact me.  After that, I’m going to go off and send in my resume to other hospitals. 

After all, everything happens for a reason, and even though I can’t see the point why this happened to me now, I’m sure it’ll clear itself up eventually. 

Bottom line: optimism?  Yeah, I still have it. 🙂