Murphy's Law

12/20/2007

My life is completely dictated by Murphy’s Law. The fact that I stated this at 10:00 this morning only makes my entire day more ironic. My interview was at 1:00 today at the Earl Cabelle Federal Building in Dallas. My aunt is familiar with the area, so she offered to pick me up and help me get there. She suggested that even though Dallas is only 20 or 30 minutes away, we should go ahead and leave at 11:00, just to make sure that there was no way we could be late. I was ready by 10:00 and promptly refused offers of food… “I can’t eat anything. My life is dictated by Murphy’s Law. If I so much as look at food, I’ll somehow manage to spill it all over myself.” We ended up leaving later than planned, around 11:30, but that was okay. After fighting traffic and finding parking, we arrived at the federal building around 12:15. We went through security, found the Peace Corps office, and then continued on to the upstairs Café where my aunt and grandmother would wait for me during the interview. Just as I was starting to relax, the fire alarm started going off. Great. We had to evacuate the building (did I mention we were on the 6th floor?) and then stand outside waiting for an eternity. My eyes were glued to my cell phone clock the entire time. I watched the minutes tick by. Finally at 12:57, the security guards motioned the crowd outside to pass back through security and into the building. Amazingly enough, I was able to push myself through the throng of people and get myself to the fourth floor Peace Corps office by 1:01. My recruiter was extremely understanding, as she had been waiting outside during the fire drill as well. Though I was exceedingly nervous by this point due to the unforeseen circumstances of my arrival, the interview went well. I was impressed by my recruiter and the insights that she was able to offer. Hopefully I impressed her as well! I’m very nervous about the language aspect of the Peace Corps, and she was able to calm my fears about that a bit. I did express to her that Asia makes me nervous because of my language fears and my personal perception (though perhaps erroneous) that Asian languages are exceedingly difficult. I was disappointed at the end of the interview. My recruiter stated that if she decided to nominate me, she would not do so until well into January because of her busy schedule. If I haven’t heard from her by January 11th, she said to call her.