No one told me patience could be so painful. I stared at my phone screen for hours while equally checking to see if my ring volume was at its highest so I could hear whenever a call came in but there was nothing. It was exactly three months since the National Universities Body declared a nationwide strike. My colleagues and I insisted that the strike could not exceed a month but one month had long passed, then two and now, three.
Source
I was getting broke since I lived alone at home so I decided to go out in search of a job to make some money and keep myself busy but none was forthcoming. It seemed all job owners in my city had converged secretly and agreed not to employ an undergraduate.
I was frustrated. However, sometime the week before a friend of mine, William, called to inform me of a job vacancy in a hotel not too distant from my apartment in the students' lodge so we prepared our credentials and headed out to apply for the job.
It was feedback from this organization who had promised to give us a call on that particular day that had kept me up all afternoon and into a greater part of the evening.
I was dozing off when I heard the buzzing that accompanied my ringtone. I jumped up, took a hasty sip from the sachet of water I had been drinking to clear my throat then picked up on the second ring.
"Babe!" It was William's hoarse voice. My heart dropped in disappointment so I lowered myself onto my mattress to help resist the urge to smash my phone against the wall.
"Hey William" I tried to sound as alive as possible.
"Those guys from the hotel, have they reached you yet?" I tutted.
"They haven't o, I've sat by my phone all day and …nothing " I heard William sigh at the other end
"The day is almost over Treasure. I would advise you to submit another application tomorrow."
I massaged my temple till it began to hurt
"So what about you?"
"I got a call from the petrol station I applied to last week. I'll be starting with them by Monday."
I congratulated him, promised to drop an application somewhere else the next day, and hung up. If only my father was well-to-do like the fathers of most people I knew, I wouldn't have to stay back at school to look for a job when others were back at their parent's houses eating, sleeping, and taking advantage of the break to give their bodies rest.
I wasn't even asking for an unrealistic life. All I needed was one call from the many places I had submitted my resume to. No one knew when the strike would be called off and since I had no source of income, I could barely feed. Thankfully, I had a roof over my head but then, I could barely pay my utility bills too.
Even that night, I barely slept. I kept checking to see if a call had come in while I dozed off or if they decided to send an SMS instead. There was still nothing. By the next morning, I was up and about submitting my curriculum vitae to different organizations, hoping at least one of them would contact me back.
Two days later when I had still gotten nothing, I decided to engage in dry-cleaning service so I got a couple of items I would be needing with the only available cash I had and sent a bulk message to my contacts so they could patronize me.
Sometime that week, I saw a poster saying a waitress was needed urgently at a bar but the pay was meager compared to the bills I had to settle so I ignored it.
That hotel where William and I had applied would have been the best option because their payment plan was favorable and the work hour was something I could keep up with when school was in session. I decided to let it go since I was already feeling better starting something of my own. The response was discouraging at first but after a week, things began to look up. I caught a cold a few days later and had to call a girlfriend of mine who was out in search of jobs to come to assist me because I couldn't afford to not deliver the clothes I had been asked to wash and iron. It was in the midst of this fracas that I got that one call I waited almost two weeks to receive.
"Congratulations, you have been offered a job with Pearl Hotels International to occupy the position of a waitress. Please be at the hotel on Monday by 8 am to confirm you have accepted this offer…."
On the 18th of June 2022, I resumed with Pearl Hotels as a waitress leaving the laundry to my friend who would give me a commission every month. In the end, it was a win-win situation.
