at long last

I've been holding off on writing much about my job search, mostly I think because I didn't want to jinx it, but rest assured that in the almost two months since I've been back in the real world I hav ebeen searching every job site out there. I'm working with a resume that is so childcare and restaurant heavy, that finding a job in the health care field was frustrating and for the most part fruitless. I basically look like a new CNA graduate, especially after having only gotten my Colorado certificate last month, and most of the places I talked to had so many applicants that they simply weren't hiring anyone with less than a year of recent hospital experience. My slightly beefed up resume gives me about eleven months of experience five years ago. That's the beefed up version! Things were looking pretty grim when I found a hospital that was taking applications for open house interviews. I figured that if my resume couldn't really sell me, I would have to sell me, so I applied. Literally twenty minutes later I got a rejection email from them, indicating that I didn't have exactly what they were looking for. I was so frustrated! I was rejected in less time than it took me to put together the entire application! LAME!! I put it out of my mind and then three days before the interviews I got an email from them asking me to come. I assumed it was a fluke, that they had been meaning to email an Elizabeth Welch or Welsh or some other similar sounding name, and I almost didn't even go. I sucked up my pride and put on my one surviving interview outfit and went to the hospital. Things actually went well, and the interviewer seemed to like me a lot, but there were a ton of applicants and there were only two available positions so I chalked it up to good interview experience and tried to put it all out of my mind. Low and behold I received a phone call a few days later asking for a second interview! The second interview took place last Thursday, and was a typically intimidating experience. I hate the anxiety of those kinds of things that make my mind go blank when required to think of a specific event in which I demonstrated leadership or good communication skills or what have you. Why can't my brain and mouth ever work together during interviews? I feel like I get all stuttery and shakey..but in reality it must have gone well, or maybe that's how everyone gets during interviews. Two workers took me out on the floor to show me what they do everyday, and how things work in the facility. Everyone I talked with took care to tell me that this will be the hardest job I ever have, but if I can make it there I can make it anywhere. The interviewer also let me know that if I really want to be a PA, this is the place that I need to be. SO, as I am sure you have now deduced, I GOT THE JOB!! They called last night to offer me the position and I happily accepted. I am officially a working CNA in Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) at Vibra Hospital. The only thing I am a little worried about, aside from my complete lack of experience, is that they want to train me on days and then start me working nights. JP and I will have opposite schedules, and with school sandwiched in their somewhere we will practically never see each other! I know we will figure it all out and adjust to this new chapter in life, even though it may take a lot of time. I can't help but think that this is the start to it all. Working full time, going to school, studying, applying to PA school for now. Once I (hopefully) get accepted into a program and begin PA school, those two years will be hugely challenging and demanding of all my time and energy. Here I go!