The Suffolk Voice

Issue date: 6/5/08 Section: The Suffolk Voices

Please?

I am unemployed. Twenty, single and unemployed. This situation that I have found myself in makes me wonder what will run out first, the summer or my personal savings.

It will be a close call.

After spending the first three weeks of summer vacation in Europe, I returned home to Cambridge under the impression that summer employment was the least of my worries. However, that has not been the case. I have been all over Harvard, Davis and Porter submitting resumes and applications. And even despite my better judgment, I've been on Craig's list, pimping myself out to the world wide web.

I find myself tweaking the cover letter of my resume with each job I apply for, describing myself as whatever the job requires: responsible, hard working, fun, open minded, sassy. My typed words offer all of my fantastic qualities: Microsoft Word, experience with customer service, register skills, six years of babysitting experience. Signed, respectfully yours, whatever you want me to be, love always, Mary Kathryn Kwasnik.

I feel like a high school girl in a teen movie, the kind who gives it all up front out of desperation. Please take me, please take me, please consider me. I'll do whatever you like, just give me a chance.

Every day that there is no response from these prospective employers, I feel a little more rejected. Did I do something wrong? Is sassy not what you're looking for? And oh shit, did I send the wrong cover letter to the wrong employer?! I wouldn't want the café looking for an animated, fun loving cashier to receive the resume meant for the yoga studio looking for calm and intelligent receptionist.

It's all so hard. How are we just supposed to suddenly understand the etiquette of finding a job? When did it become more than going to the local mall and filling out some applications? When did cover letters become mandatory? I must have missed some sort of workshop explaining all of this. Real Life 101A, anyone?

So instead of making money and gaining life experience, I spend my time doing more important things, like keeping track of all the new movies that come out on Charter OnDemand. Some afternoons I'll walk to the park and read or walk barefoot around the neighborhood until the pavement gets too hot. Other days I'll walk to Harvard and pester my friends at their jobs, teasing them with the fact that I can leave their stores whenever I want.

It's a lazy existence, but who knows?

Tomorrow I could get a phone call from that yoga studio, or even from the loving couple who needs a part-time nanny for their bundle of joy.

I can only hope.

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