Magnolia Tree

It’s Saturday night in Knoxville. My friends are out dancing the night away at a Lambda Chi Band party. I typically would be there in a heartbeat, but tonight I turned in my cowboy boots for slippers. Cozy in my little Laurel bedroom, Drew Holcomb’s sweet lyrics fill the air, and I sit staring at my laptop screen. I didn’t think this would be so daunting. I have been brainstorming this “personal narrative” for weeks. Tonight I was/ am determined to conquer the challenge of writing a short (aka. No more than two pages double-spaced) essay about why I want this position and how I am perfect candidate for my dream job.

But as you can see, I am instead writing about how challenging it is to write this essay. The challenge is not figuring out why I think this job is a perfect fit for my personality and how this would change my entire future for the best, but rather how to express something so important and complex in such a limited amount of words. I am NOT a woman of few words. Hah, quite the opposite actually, and sometimes this gets me in trouble or is just obnoxious. The pressure to get this right is weighing on my heart. I pray God gives me the words to show not only how much I have been dreaming about this job, but how I am qualified, competent and confident I would excel at this position.

Dreams are funny things. As a little girl I have had this image in my head of myself as an adult woman. I imagined myself as a caring, compassionate, and comforting woman working as a nurse within the neonatal intensive care unit. My little world was rocked near the end of freshman year when I realized that this was not for me. I had dreamed of this since I was such a little girl playing with Cabbage Patch and Lee Middleton dolls. After this decision to switch my major (several times) I have wondered what do I want to be doing, what am I going to succeed doing, and ultimately what can I do to make a difference in the world. Now as graduation is approaching, I think I have found my dream job. It is not where I thought I would end up, but I think it is right where I belong. But now, the future of my dream job is going to come down to an essay.

As I sit here staring at a blank word document I realize I have been sitting here through A Million Miles Away, Passenger Seat, and now Chasing Someday. So basically hours. I may not know what direction I want to take in my essay, but I know the direction of my dreams and I am going to keep dreaming until I have everything I ever dreamed of (and hopefully more). Now back to my essay. 

-SJP