Counting Signs Before Blessings

the universe is throwing me a hella lotta signs. i should work. in a call center. at first the signs were faint. barely noticeable amidst the normalcy of its everyday appearance in my life. almost all my friends are working in a call center after all. but recently, the signs have been growing into alarmingly loud proportions.

point one. i met up with a friend yesterday because he said he wanted some mp3's from me. over coffee at starbucks 6750, while waiting for the cd to bake inside lappie, we talked about trivial stuff. of course work would always be present in such conversations. he said he still had a lotta time to kill since his shift starts at around 9 in the evening, and it was only around 6:30. i asked him if he's ok with that set-up. he said he doesn't have a problem. the work is easy, he's getting paid, and the mp3's he's getting from me will be able to keep him company for the night.

"so how long have you been with the company?" i asked, while absent mindedly minimizing and maximizing my iTunes.

"almost a year now," he, who is a licensed architect, said matter-of-factly while gnawing the straw. "and it was the most amazing thing too. the first three months, the company had us sent to the US for training. and they took care of almost everything. it was like, we just had to be there. daily allowances, transportation, lodging... the works." he stopped his teeth acrobatics for a while to check if my jaw has dropped yet before continuing. (it has.) "my only regret was i splurged the daily allowance they gave us on food. i should have brought at least one gadget like a digicam or something."

"wow," was the only word i could manage with my mouth not set to its proper position yet.

"and the work," he said, "isn't even that hard too. after the training, when we were already making calls, it only took around two and a half months and i was promoted already. i only took calls for around three months." straw forgotten completely, he looked me in the eye and accentuated every syllable. "Give Me Your Resumé."

and there was nothing after that. it felt like the count in sesame street after mentioning each number. lightning strikes at the same time with his vampiric violet-skinned laugh. (a-a-a-a-aaaaa...) "but... but... but..."

"you'd do ok, you know. you just need to make that first step."

"... of writing my resumé..." i breathed. because i was afraid. i haven't written a resumé before. and i don't even know if i want the damned job. sure i'd make a lot of money, and sure the job could possibly be easy for me, but... but... but... i'd be placing myself under a system again. something which i didn't like during college, that's why i kept on shutting myself out of it. how could this one be any different?

ok. i'm being unfair. at least i should try it out. things are different in work and in school after all. i'm just one big wimp afraid of jumping into another firepit.

anyway, point two. tonight before going home, i dropped by a friend's house who needed help installing a software in his pc. it didn't take long at all, and it didn't really require much effort but my friend really was very appreciative. i didn't know what made him blurt this out, but he said, "alam mo, i can feel you're going to be very successful."

my initial reaction would be just to smile and say, "pshaw, it's nothing really," but he said it with such... substance and solidity that it was difficult to ignore. (and there goes the count again. "two! two obviously obvious signs! a-a-a-a-aaa...")

"honestly," he said, while browsing thru the program i've installed. "you could at least try working for the meantime, like, in a call center. people say there's not really any growth in that kind of job, but actually, there is. especially with someone new like you. and besides, you're not doing anything anyway. it's a good opportunity to learn new things about the working class. plus you'd earn a pretty big amount of money to boot."

a sigh was all i could manage. i wanted to argue with a person, not with a whole universe. and the universe is throwing me a lotta signs. all kinds of signs too. the humongous kinds and the little annoying ones as well.

i guess with one look it's pretty obvious what the universe is telling me. but still. i'd like to read between the lines...