Tips for those seeking employment - #1

Monday, November 12, 2012

Sending out a resume stating that your email address is sexc_*your name*@whatever.com probably doesn't support the claim that you're “extremely professional.” Or at the very least it implies that you're a whole other type of 'professional'.

A Childhood Dream Come True

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Freeze Dried Ice Cream. Astronaut ‘Food’. This grotesque brick of crumbly pink muck, swathed in shiny silver packaging was my first ever indication that life in other English speaking countries might be different to the life I myself was living in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.

I was 11 years old, and my best friend had just returned from her first ever international holiday with her parents. America! Even the name seemed exciting. It conjured up images of palm trees and movie stars and Mickey Mouse skipping hand in hand with Minnie Mouse past the famous Hollywood sign.

With my carefully saved money, entrusted to her before her trip with a consideration that far exceeded any hand over of money I’ve made since (including purchasing my house!), she had returned with the most exciting item of clothing one could own at the time – A pair of Reebok Pumps.
There was nothing – but NOTHING – cooler than a pair of Reebok Pumps.

Can you imagine anything cooler than these puppies?!
I wore them until they fell apart.

They were a careful investment - an extravagance for a kid my age at a time when the AUD-USD conversion was very heavily weighted in favour of the US (around 50 US cents to the Aussie Dollar).

Despite the poor exchange rate, and between the wondrousness of space ice-cream and shoes with pumps, I fell in love with the good old U.S. of A.

As I grew older, my fascination with 80’s/90’s fashion waned, and my interest in novelty foods for astronauts petered out. What didn't fade, however, was my interest in visiting America. New interests replaced the old. The introduction of Costco into Australia introduced me to the incredible delight that is Reece’s Brand chocolates *drool*. My teenage years brought cute US boys with accents *more drooling*. Influence from parents and friends brought me the music of Sam Butera & the Witnesses, Bing Crosby and later Louis Prima – now one of my favourite singers.


Into my 20’s, online shopping brought me Victoria’s Secret. Blogging brought me friendship with a person on the other side of the planet with more similar interests to mine than most of the people I know in Australia. Work brought other more serious interests – and the beginnings of opportunities to visit a place I had dreamt about since I was an 11 year old pumping up my shoes as though they were an invention to rival the discovery of electricity.


And now, 19 years later, it’s time. In February of next year, I will finally visit the USA.
After all these years, you’d think I’d have the trip planned down to the last letter. But my dilemma now is that I don’t know where to start. How do you fit 19 years of interests into 16 short days? And how do you plan a trip when your interest is not so much in the tourist attractions as it is in the lifestyle of the people who live there? I'm stuck.
In all my years of longing to visit; of quiet fascination with a culture so similar yet so completely different to my own, I never took the time to think about how I'd fit everything into one holiday.

It's silly that I never thought of it before now. Especially when I think back to all of that quality thinking time wasted while pumping up my awesome, USA-trip-inspiring shoes.