Welcome (back) to the working week

No more of this, it seems.

“And so I took the job interviewing schizophrenics because it was offered to me and because it was all there seemed to be. And it seemed somehow predestined– a karmic response that could not be avoided…

So I took the job and did the job and my life will never be the same.”

-Scott Carrier

I read part of that line a few years ago on my friend James’s facebook when he was working and I was interning at a newspaper in West Virginia.

Now he’s part of the Gazette diaspora in Washington D.C., which I’ll be joining in a few weeks. I didn’t know the source back then, but I liked the earnestness of it– boldly fatalistic and determined.

It was another year or so before I discovered the original context– a piece by Scott Carrier in episode of This American Life from 1998. I often listen to old episodes when I’m drifting off to sleep and I remember jolting to alertness with an “A-ha!” having solved the mystery of its origin.

I’ve got a job for the next little while. It’s one I really wanted and one that I expect will be quite exciting and challenging. I have no doubt my life and career will change a great deal during and after it.

Another perk is getting to work with a different member of that old Charleston crowd, a super journalist and good friend (whose most recent heroic feats also include trying to chase a pick-pocket down U Street after my wallet was stolen at Ben’s Chili Bowl).

I get pretty nervous during job interviews and I’ve never had a fancy-pants internship and I admit that I don’t always get it right, so it’s really heartening that there are some people willing to take a chance on me.

I care a lot about good journalism, the kind you do. And I’ll work hard and learn fast, I promise.

Keeping mum about the specifics until I make sure it’s all ironed out, but if you have any apartment leads in Washington D.C., thow ‘em my way!

Take us out strong, Elvis…

“Welcome to the workin’ week.
You gotta do it till you’re through it so you better get to it.”

-Elvis Costello

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2010 at 5:26 pm and is filed under wealth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.