Waiting In Line, Waiting For a Verdict

[BTW, this is like important. This is like, my 20th post faithful readers (Or technically reader. Haha, yeah I'm talking about you. Let's see me reach 50(?), as soon as possible :) ]

Aaaaaahhhhh….

Oh, hey there, reader. I was just taking a moment to enjoy my end-of-school holiday. But, no, that's not what I'm gonna talk about today. Today I want to talk about yesterday, seeing as today was the next day after yesterday which I should've talked about yesterday instead of tomorrow which is now today, I'm gonna do it today, okay?

Confused? Good.

Anywaaaaaaaaaaaay….

Yesterday was a Tuesday. Don't get me wrong, I like Tuesdays, but that Tuesday was something I really wasn't looking forward to. If you look at my last post, you would see I received "exciting (yet TERRIFYING) news".

So, it came completely by surprise. I was up typing on my laptop, when on Facebook, Yudhi popped up in chat.

Yudhi: "hey, karin, r u coming to sch tomorrow?"

Me: "yeah, to drop off the form"

Yudhi: "what abt the interview?"

"…"

It took me a moment to register what was written on the chatbox. When I realized what he said, I rapidly typed back, "WHAT INTERVIEW? WHAT THE HECK R U TALKING ABOUT?"

I pressed enter, and whadayaknow, he went offline -__-

I resisted the urge to bang on the keyboard when he was for some reason going on and off on Facebook. When the connection settled, he replied:

Yudhi: "did you come to the meeting on Saturday?"

Way to answer with a question with a question, man. But then as I took a moment to recall it, I realized what he meant. On Saturday, one of the things we talked about was the AYC delegate leaders. Mr Yudi did say something about compiling a list of candidates, but seriously, how could they not tell me?

I pretty much freaked out. Usually, interviews and such wouldn't bother me, but that was mainly because I had time to calm down and prepare. In short, I stayed up late. There were still a few parts of the delegate form I tried to figure out, and then for some reason I ended up chatting up with a… well I guess I could say, friend. (To said person: We should really finish that chat, don't you think?)

I didn't get a good night's sleep. The next day I woke up a tad—okay, way — late. Yudhi said to get to school about 8 AM, and I woke up at well… seven-fifty-five. Hahaha. I kicked into overdrive to get ready and when I was dressing up in my room, my cellphone rang. The number on the screen, I recognized as Yudhi's.

Yudhi: "Hey, Karin this is Yudhi." (No duh) "About when are you coming to school?"

Me: "Uh, around 8.30…?" (Well, it was past that, which Yudhi didn't point out. In my defense, I had no idea what time it was.)

Yudhi: "Okay, then. By the way, the interview's at 12."

"…"

My mind took a moment to completely take that in (Yeah, I know it's been doing that a lot lately). I instantly felt relieved. I thought I completely missed out on the interview. So taking my sweeeet precious time, I got to school about nine. Ignoring obviously intrigued stares from the few people who were at school (seriously, who comes to school on a day-off? Other than the only guy who actually reads this blog, that is. Haha)

Hopping up the stairs, I walked into the Student Council room and ran into Yudhi and Mr Yudi. Only, the two of them that is.

"You're here so early," said Mr. Yudi, which only confirmed I was up way too early than I should've been.

"She's here to drop off the form," elaborated Yudhi, which compelled me to say, "Here it is, see you at 12." and head back home...

But no, it seemed Yudhi had something else in mind. "And maybe give a hand with all these other forms," he finished.

How was I supposed to respond to that? I shrugged, giving off this goofy smile and surrendered. My mom's car was gone anyhow, so it was better than doing nothing. Spending most of the morning re-typing the delegate forms was well, let's be honest, boring and the fact that I didn't get much sleep made my mind drift in and out of that place. Then Yudhi started making conversation, you know, the usual banter. HAHA. (Don't ask the reason for that one.) Then he said:

"So, you ready for the interview later?"

"…"

I cracked up in another one of my trademark goofy smiles, the ones I use to fill in awkward silences or when my brain is lagging too much or when I just don't know how to respond.

"I was actually trying not to think about it," was my final reply.

Although we were sitting across from each other, we were busy behind laptops, but I could've sworn he smiled(?). "How could you not think about it? I mean, this is kind of huge."

Thanks for reminding me, I sarcastically thought. "When I face "huge" stuff like this, my brain sorts of shut down. I try not to think about it."

I'll spare you the boring details and skip to around 10 AM, when the other guys started to file in. Most of them were 8th Graders, and there was only one other 7th Grader around. Didn't really help my odds *shrugs*.

Yudhi started getting texts from the interviewer a Mr Chu who flew in all the way from Singapore to interview us o.O. He was the founder of the GYCi, the Global Youth Congress International, and so I pictured him as a big hotshot or something, with fancy suits and maybe a limo(?). Didn't turn out the way.

So instead of arriving to school at 12 sharp as said, it appears that was his airport arrival time. Sounding just a tad bit like a tourist, he actually asked Yudhi how much a cab ride could cost (seems like a typical question, right?) only to start offering cab drivers 100k for a ride. (Naik taksi pake nawar, emng lg di pasar? (okay, jayus…) ya gk bisalah…)

I actually welcomed the delay. More time to freak out. Yipee.

Suckish thing was, we didn't know what the interview would be focused on, so I decided to prepare myself to ad-lib it all. Another suckish thing, I was getting hungry as lunch-time loomed near.

Then he arrived. Dun dun dun. Everyone was all tense suddenly. He wanted to meet us all in the meeting room, and introduce himself. Opposite to my initial image, suits and all, he wore a plain pink(?)-ish shirt and normal dress trousers. He had a typical Singaporean face and a friendly smile.

He explained a lot about the AYC's vision and ASEAN's history, and how he founded the AYC in hopes of a future were the countries in ASEAN had progressed into something huge. It was inspirational stuff really, but I couldn't help but tune out of the briefing every now and then.

In my mind I was all, After this is the interview. Don't panic. The interview. THE INTERVIEW. Hey, I said don't panic! You are gonna do fine.

Okay, that was a bit of over-reacting, but I did realize the interview was coming oh, so very soon and I just tried to keep my mind in the zone and ready for it. Then a certain image of a certain person came into mind, from like out-of-the-blue and mind fell off balance for a split-second. I blame last night's conversation -__-.

Back to the story. We were handed a guideline on what the Delegate Leaders are all about and a basic registration form. We got paired up for the interviews (which was sort of a relief) and sent to the Meeting Room again to fill out the forms.

Now, as you probably already know, writing is one of my many talents. In a sense, it might be the only skill I have mastered. But filling out the forms was a bit of a stumper for me. It mostly asked about past 'LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE'.

Damn. The only leadership experience I had was like being class president and planning my family vacations. Trust me, it was hard work and brought out a loud of leadership skills in me, but like it doesn't pop out, you know? I guess, it shouldn't have been a big deal seeing as everyone else didn't have much outside school experience either. But they were all like in the student council or something, and it did give them the slightest upper-hand.

The only other guy who had zilch experience as me was, Erico, who was also my interview partner (unfortunately :P Just kidding. High five, dude!).

Many people ask me, "Why didn't you join the Student Council? You would be a great candidate."

Blah, blah, blah. Not to be disrespectful or anything to the people who support me and encourage me to be all "over-achieving" and who realize my leadership potential, 4 words: You. Don't. Know. Me.

Okay, I would love to be Ms. Busy-body and play teacher's pet, though evidently, that has gotten me into drama before, but I'm not a "Rachel Berry", if you will. I'm not the type of person who knows she has what it takes but destroys it by being overly-'me', all obsessive and overshadowing. I guess what I'm trying to say is, that I'm still figuring things out. I don't want to push myself to doing what seems like 'the typical me thing' to do. Not many people know what I have to deal with on a daily basis. School, parents, making sure my older brother gets through school and baby-sitting a younger sister. It's the little things I've been doing for like an eternity and I love doing them, it's like the dream job you don't wanna quit, but it takes a lot out of me.

WOAH. Don't know how that suddenly turned into a rant-ish paragraph, but yeah, that's basically my point. I promised myself, I would take this first freshmen year at Santa Laurensia JHS, to just adapt. Though that seems to have hurt my resumé, and I've realized that I do need to build it up (8th Grade, I am so going to kill you---> actually planning Student Council President Candidacy. Trust me, I have BIG plans).

Anyways, let's skip right to the interview. After waiting for over an hour in line, Me and Erico sat down next to each other, while we agonizingly waited for Mr Chu to take a call. I fingered a simple black bracelet I put on just for today. There's a bit of history into the seemingly mundane rubber wrist-wear, but let's just say it was like a good-luck charm.

He hung up (finally!) and started the interview. He asked a kind of cornering first one. In front of us was a list of the Leader candidates, and he ask us to choose the top 3 in our books, who would become great leaders. He gave us time to think, and I was just stumped. Not on the first choice (I think you know what I mean), not so much on the second, but the third. You see most of the names on the list were 8th Graders. And the gap seemed a bit disadvantageous to me. Since, we haven't really been in the same class and such, I don't think anyone could really see my leadership skills.

So after an awkward silence, Erico went first. First was, well, himself *ahem*. Second was, well, you-know-who *ahem*. And the third one I just forgot. Suffice to say he didn't say my name *shrugs*.

My turn. First was also myself (No, duh). Second was… unimportant *ahem*, and when I was contemplating third to be Erico I decided the opposite way, saying someone's name at the top of my head.

Next Question: "Why did you not choose your interview partner, out of curiosity?"

I nearly laughed, but I answered first. Well, since he didn't pick me, I didn't feel obligated to pick him, was what I said IN MY MIND. Out loud, I pointed out that we were in the same Writing Club, I had a chance to know him and I said he was a nice guy who participates actively in the club, (and "Nothing personal," I laughed) but I didn't think he would be able to manage a huge project on his own.

Yeah, that was a bit sugar-coated at best. I remember that the moment I said 'Writing Club', Eric's face sort of fell and he said afterwards that, "Pas lw ngomong Writing Club, ack, gw udh takut lw mo ngomong ttg gw males ngumpulin tugas ato ap, tp ternyata ngk." So, sugar-coated, at best. I guess I'm just that nice.

When he answered, I could tell he was making it all up on the fly. I can't exactly remember what he said but I think it was something like "…. But she's not out-going enough and might not be organized enough to lead a project like this."

My response: Outside, I had a small smile and nodded understandingly, taking the critique the professional way. Inside, I thought, Screw you. If we were in the same class, you'd be begging me to lead/be in your group. (Peace dude, no harm intended. Haha :P)

Next questions were pretty straight-forward. The good and bad about our beloved Indonesia, reasons why we should be the leaders, how we would handle a situation.

Bottom line, I think it went pretty well. I pretty much knew how to respond to the questions, and didn't really take too much time to think or say 'uh…' or 'um…' to frequently. Big thumbs up to myself on this one, was all I have to say.

Afterwards, it was Yudhi's and Kay's turn, and while we waited for the verdict, as he said it might be announced right after their interview (which it never did), Ms Maria, the principal of our school sat down with me, Garry, Erico, Evan and Mr Yudi and just had a nice chat. I didn't really say much, since I didn't have much of a reputation yet with Ms Maria yet, she didn't really acknowledge me (oh, boohoo).

Nicest thing was afterwards, Erico treated me to lunch at McDonald's :)

If your reading this, Erico, I wanna say thanks a lot, you saved my stomach, and I just noticed on Facebook that your birthday's tomorrow, so Happy Birthday, hope you have a good one!

Okay, WOAH. It's late. It's 10.30-ish now, and I started typing this at like 8.30. It turned out a lot longer than expected but hey, when you're writing from the heart, words flow out much more easily.

I'm still a bit nervous about the results. Will I become the first 7th Grade AYC Delegate Leader in Santa Laurensia? Okay, that's a bit of a stretch, but I'm way nervous. Wish me tons of luck!

By the way, tonight's episode of Glee was awesome, no it was legen—wait for it—dary! (Get the reference?). Love you NPH! Or should I say Bryan Ryan? Or, better AWESOME-er yet, Uncle Barney? Ahahaha. And I got the latest songs already in my cell, so it'll be tonight's lullaby.

So good night guys.

Signed,

Sir Writes-A-Lot

0 comments:

Post a Comment