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May 14th, 2012
Among the final exams crisis, the sleepless days, and all the huge workload of the final projects coming soon, Michelle finds herself with some kind of appointment. Not a regular one, definitely. It is this one day in which she was invited to change her life, at least for a year, probably forever.
Since a month before, she has been trying to get an internship abroad (trough AIESEC)... she knows she wants to go to Europe, but the odds say that she will not be able to. Since she started the process, it seems like all she receives are e-mails from India and Africa, places about which, when she is honest to herself, she can admit to be scary her. Anyway, she still has some hope; her friends are already starting to say "Michelle only answers to an e-mail if it comes from another country" and as long as the e-mails don't cease coming there is a chance.
Two weeks before, a Hungarian AIESEC guy with a very funny last name (Kiss) sent her an e-mail. "You seem to have the profile for this internship, if you are interested apply", talking about an internship for some company called Quince. Michelle had checked the application form and didn't thought she was suitable. The company was requiring a "flash expert", and she knew she wasn't one, she actually had hated the software when she had tried to learn it before. Also, they were looking for a designer, and the only things Michelle knew about design felt like nothing to her... and on top of it all, the company's website listed too many "important" brands as clients. How would she, a 19 years old, barely finishing her second year of college (not even as a designer) stand a chance of filling such position?
Anyway, here was this Kiss guy, asking her to apply, and all she had to do was to check out the company profile, write a cover letter and send the same portfolio that she had already sent in her other 6 internship applications she had already filled (from none of which she had had any news). In all, flash expert or no flash expert, good designer or not, applying was easy and she had nothing to loose, so she sent the application package and waited.
Several days after applying she received news from this Kiss character again. Quince had liked her portfolio and they wanted to continue the application process with her. What followed? An interview between her and Kiss first for him to check her English and personality and finally if she turned out to be sane and able to speak English, she would have an interview with the COO of Quince. The interview with Kiss had already taken place and after a little delay due to what Kiss attributed to sickness of the COO (delay in which Michelle feared they would never get back to her), they finally had set a time and date for the interview: Monday, May 14th, 8:00 a.m. for Michelle in Mexico, 4:00 p.m. for the Quincers, who spend their days in Eastern European Time.
Michelle was trying as hard as she could not to get herself too excited. As every other human, she had already had some severe disappointments, besides she still lived in a world where she wasn't good enough to work in a company as Quince. Still, too difficult to manage this excitement. Even with all the finals chaos, she had managed to dedicate several hours of her already-sleepless nights to find out everything she could about Quince. You see, Michelle can be a little obsessive in a way if she really wants something... so she went to pretty much every corner of the internet in her time between the declared interest of the company in her and the interview. I can assure there is no post on Quince's Facebook page that she didn't see during that week. She found the blog that some Quincers had written and read every post (at least those in english, because they have some posts in dutch as well). Adding to how awesome Quince seemed to be, she knew several people who had already spent a semester abroad in Budapest, and who claimed the city was the most amazing thing ever. Summing all up, everything seemed to be ideal.
So now we are here on the day of the interview. Michelle has been awake since 4 a.m., since she had to take some pictures of the sunrise for her final Marketing Photography project. She drove to the university in some kind of dizzy state, the same she has been in the past few weeks due to the lack of sleep and her eternal day-dreaming state... but this time is different, to her usual "what if..." questions some more were added. What if they don't like me? What if the ask me about software I don't know? What if they don't understand my English? and the most important one... What if they DO like me? Although she says she tried to avoid getting excited, she had already spent way more time than she should have fantasizing about going to Budapest.
Time goes and she has to be patient. Waiting for the sunrise is not the best activity to do when you have such a huge sleep debt with your body as Michelle had, and how does she kill her time: getting even more nervous about the interview. At the point the sunrise takes place, she doesn't even care if the pictures are not that good... she knows already photography is not her thing and there are bigger issues going on. Her brain can't stop reminding her that even if through a screen she's about to have a conversation that might change her life.
Finally, she finishes taking her pictures, although she never got the light in the subject as she wanted it. Anyway, it's almost time, and even though she always late for pretty much everything, she is really wanting to make an exception. That morning she even chose the colors to wear to look serene but cheerful... she is trying too hard to make everything perfect. As we know she is nervous. So she rushes to the building where she knows she can find a separate compartment to have the conversation and begins to set everything. She places the laptop, in which Skype is already open. The COO is always online during his work-hours, she knows because the time difference is 8 hours, and while she is too busy not sleeping, she constantly checks his profile due to nerves. She plugs in the earphones and checks the angle of the laptop while watching herself in Photobooth, mimicking she is speaking. She doesn't think she looks fine, but it is now too late to change her clothes.
The final minutes before the interview pass by with her still looking at herself in the screen, testing the sound, the microphone, everything. The time arrives, by now, her stomach feels as if she were in the most freaking high roller coaster. She waits until the Quince COO starts the conversation, in which he asks politely with a message if she is ready. She replies yes, and waits for the call.
And here we are. The interview she hasn't been able to take out of her mind in all this time. I would like to tell you exactly how it's going, but it would be impossible. Michelle on one hand was so nervous she seemed to forget how to speak English, and I am not so good understanding foreign English accents. All I know is that there is Gyuri, the COO and sitting beside him is a man that Gyuri introduces, but even if Michelle can't understand what Gyuri is saying but is too afraid to ask them to repeat in fear that they might think she is not fluent in English, she knows from the pictures on the webpage (which she has also seen many, many times to this point), that the other man is the Art Director.
This interview is completely crazy. I can tell that Michelle is not understanding even half of what this Gyuri guy is saying, she is talking crazy stuff in primitive English exaggerating a little too much. It is quite evident this is Michelle's first work interview. Gyuri seems to be too polie too to keep asking to repeat herself, while the other guy only smiles, sits there and nod. Michelle doesn't know what she is saying. She is ruined, she has to be honest about not being able to use flash at least... if that would be their main request for her they must not expect what she can't do.
Wait, now Gyuri is saying that it doesn't matter. That she will have time to learn. He is not asking questions, he is now explaining himself what Quince is. Michelle knows half of what he is saying from her visits to the companies social media sites. Now he is saying something new. He is saying that the intern they are looking for will work in some project related to Philips, and he is now asking Michelle to visit one of the webpages the Art Director has been working on recently, for her to see what she would be working in. Michelle is in awe. She wants this.
Suddenly, Gyuri says that to be honest... she has already be chosen. Michelle can't believe her ears. "What?", she asks, this time she can't be having doubts. He repeats that she has been chosen already, that they liked her portfolio and that they like her cover letter, and he asks what are her plans for the summer, because they would like her to start as soon as possible. Michelle is being ridiculous, and mentions that she has just earned the right to make a summer internship in a local T.V. channel and that she has to finish the exams, but inside, she is burning with joy, she wants to tell him that she will leave tomorrow and arrive to Budapest two days later. She asks for how long to they want her, and he asks in return for how long would she be able to stay. This is a dream for Michelle they are now talking about the possibility of her making her internship last a whole year.
Michelle is a little bit too excited. She is mostly (trying to) listen, while Gyuri keeps on talking about the project. Finally they are ready to say goodbye, after Michelle promises to start to look for plane tickets and to get in touch with Kiss and him about her dates of arrival. At the time she wants to leave only two weeks later, just as she finishes her exams. She finally knows what do they mean when they say "too excited, can't wait".
The interview finishes. She is love with the world. She is in love with her life. Her stomach tells her that she is about to start flying. She knows that she has just gained a ticket to what might be the biggest adventure of her life, and that this feeling of excitement is one that she will always, always remember.
Now all that's left shout to the world "I'll come get you!"
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So that is pretty much how I recall May 14th of 2012. After that I pretty much went around telling everyone I was leaving, still not believing it a 100% myself (it is still amazing than just a conversation to a screen can pretty much change your life). Although I am not proeficient enough with this language, or even with my own to really tell you how cool I felt at the time. All I know, is that this feeling I wish to everyone! The feeling of having the impossible happening, of realization, the feeling that all effort is worth it in the end, that you can accomplish something... and most of all, the absolute certainty that amazing things are about to happen to you in a short future, feeling about which I was definitely right: this was just the announcement of all the amazing experiences that were to come :)
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| A pretty bad photographer... but still here I am (in purple), BUDAPEST, or as Hungarians correctly pronounce it: BudapeSHt |
tl;dr Pero me da gusto que estes contenta. Y claro que tu inglés está super bien no seas mentirosa.
ReplyDeleteMuchas gracias Aldo!
DeleteY el inglés, anda bien ahora, pero con los nervios y con eso de que no lo hablaba nunca por miedo a ser juzgada, la trababa se lengua.