Bonus blog photo op!

Only certain parts of this photo are candid. Ryan and I living the dream.

Greetings from America

Hi, y’all (that’s American for hello and also more of a joke for the college students I know)

So, as many of you may know, or for the few of you that don’t, I finally got a job! I started about two weeks ago at the Habitat for Humanity Azusa ReStore (www.sgvhabitat.org) – think Salvation Army mixed with Home Depot. The ReStore exists to help raise money for the local builds through sales of donated items, to provide the community with materials at lower prices (making remodeling and general building projects available to people of lower incomes or tighter budgets) and to reduce waste on the job site and off by collecting and reselling a lot of things that would have been trash. Our particular store grosses about $50,000 dollars a year through this process. I have always, in some vague, general sense, supported Habitat for Humanity (HFH), but now that I know much more about what they do, and how they do it, I feel like I can be a full-fledged fan! Getting an opportunity to work for such an organization is so good it is almost laughable that I got this job.

For those who don’t know the story, I will briefly recap the events that lead up to it. Since I graduated from APU in May finding a job became a very present reality (the pressure of which was there long before graduation, dating back to possibly second or third grade, maybe even further.) I’ve realized that deadlines seem to be something that doe-eyed young adults, such as myself, don’t really understand (at least not the ones with the same kind of background or upbringing I have come through). I’ve experienced deadlines. I’ve had tests and papers with due dates that cannot be changed. I’ve had applications and payments that, if missed, would have had serious consequences. But I’ve never had loan payments like I do now. And I’ve never had a month, such as the month of November, the month that my payments start, become such a looming presence in my life. So, if you couldn’t tell, finding a job was at the top of my priority list (well, maybe after the intentional community I’m living in, and my family and such, but it certainly was up toward the top and it definitely ranked high on my things-that-cause-me-a-severe-amount-of-stress list).

So, beginning straight after graduation, and a short visit to my parent’s home, I began my seemingly never-ending and relentlessly hopeless search for a job. Coming out of school, despite being asked more than a handful of times, I had no idea what I wanted to do. When I thought of my future, in terms of any sort of career or professional life, I would think of one word: non-profit. And it was that word that I continued to throw out to people when they asked me about my future plans, as if it sounded good and solid enough that they would think it a respectable position worthy of seeking out and wouldn’t be bothered that I was doing “nothing” with my life. But within that, within the word of “non-profit” there are a lot of different places to go and a lot of different jobs that one could work. And I had no idea which of those I wanted to seek out. Because, in all honesty, a career is not high on my priority list (I know, young and naïve, but that’s where I am for now). A job is something I want to have only to the pay the bills and get me by enough so that relationships can be the priority in my life. Poverty is something I want to embrace as a Christian, but I suppose I should save those thoughts for another email where I can unpack them more. All that said, I needed a job so that come November I could pay my loans and not have them default to my parents.

When I got out of school I had dreams of maybe working a non-profit (because if I’m going to be putting that many hours into an organization I hope they are helping some people on the way), but as the months went by, and I continually failed to get interviews or calls back or even to find positions that would work with my schedule and financial situation that dream somewhat fizzled. My schedule over summer became focused around working at the library, spending time in my community, and looking for other work. Part of my strategy for searching for work was to get connected (or in some cases re-connected) with people that I worked with through college that I felt knew me well, and could say some good, but still honest, things about me. One person on this list was Matt Visser, the director of the Ministry and Service office at APU. I had worked with Matt throughout my work with Faith/Activism Collective and from my unsuccessful attempts to get One Percent started on campus (if you’re unaware of what those are, let me know and I’ll fill you in). Throughout the months after graduation I would get random emails from Matt about different positions that had opened or that he was emailed about. Although I appreciated his kindness, a lot of the jobs he sent me weren’t very useful, because they were either too far away, didn’t pay enough, or weren’t enough hours. One day, however, Matt emailed me about a position that opened up at the Habitat ReStore.

It was the same store that my close friend Micah worked at. I talked to Micah about it and he told me that his co-worker was leaving to Grad. School and that they were looking to fill her position. He would have told me about it earlier, but he had heard me talking pretty seriously about wanting to work with adults with special needs (which is still something I want to do at some point) and didn’t think I would be interested. At this point I was pretty desperate, and interested in almost anything that could fit my qualifications and meet my job requirements – including, but not limited to, office and secretarial work, shift driver, night watchmen, and facilities management (which is the PC term for janitors). I worked on my application and re-focused my resume to bring in to Habitat the next day. I woke up the next morning, got dressed up, and drove down to hand in my application in person. The manager and I talked for a short while and I left feeling like I made a good impression. However, after talking with Micah, my mood changed. He informed me that before I went in they were already leaning toward hiring someone else who had come in the day before. I was disappointed, but it wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling at this point. I got the official call from the manger, Bill, the next day. They were going to hirer the other candidate, but they would be sure to keep my application on hand, just in case.

To avoid dragging this out too long, let’s skip ahead a couple of months. My friend Micah, the same friend that was my contact at Habitat, was planning on leaving to go to Cambodia to tutor the child of a missionary family for a year. As plans got more and more solidified for his trip, he decided it was time to inform his boss that he would be leaving in a month or so. That night Micah told me that his boss had brought my name up as a possible replacement for Micah when he left. Micah said it was a good sign, but to not get my hopes up because his boss also discussed a couple of other options, such as hiring a volunteer, or bringing in someone from another store. Both of which would save them some time, effort, and money. Micah said when Bill got back from vacation he would give him his why-you-should-hire-Eric-spiel. A week later I got a call from Bill, or more accurately a voicemail, asking me if I was still interested in an opportunity to work for them. I called him back immediately and set a time up to come in. That Saturday I went in to talk with Bill. He wasn’t very specific as to what the meeting was, so I dressed up just in case, and brought a couple copies of my resume, which I left in the car. I walked in, he showed me around the building, had me read over an official description of what my job would be, told me the Exec. Director, the one that normally makes these decisions was on vacation, that the power was passed on to him, and that he was ready to bring me on starting Tuesday. As fast as it seemed like that all happened, I can tell you it felt a lot faster to me. On Thursday I got the message from Bill, on Saturday I went in to the store, on Tuesday I officially started work. I basically came on as Micah’s replacement, but he wanted me to work with Micah for a couple of weeks to train under him (and looking back on it two weeks into the job, I’m sure glad he did).

All and all, it’s been a really great job. In my next email I’ll have to let you know how the actual work is going. I figure this is long enough for now. Write me back, if you can. I would love to hear from you all.

And I figure, just for the sake of interest, I’ll end each email with a quote or a passage or random fact or scary statistic or something that I liked or thought was interesting or worth discussing or just thought was funny for that moment. This email, I’ll end with this:

“The Roots of Violence:

Wealth without work,

Pleasure without conscience,

Knowledge without character,

Commerce without morality,

Science without humanity,

Worship without sacrifice,

Politics without principles.”

- (Of course) Gandhi

With love and hope,

Eric