You Can't Have It All

Chapter 1

Today is a new day! With a confident nod, I walked out of the Light Railway Transit or LRT as it is commonly called. Today is surely a new day for me, as after months of searching for a job and submitting my resumes for different companies, I was finally being called for an interview.

            As I walked out of the LRT station in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, I had to shield my eyes from the blinding afternoon sun.

            I really can’t comprehend why they had to call me for an interview in the afternoon, I thought haughtily to myself, that’s when the sun will be on full blast.

            Nevertheless, with determination I walked towards the skyscraper located about two blocks away from the LRT station. The fifteen storey company that called me for interview was known as Crystal Holdings which was, as the name suggested, the business of selling crystal made products. The woman who made the phone call to me yesterday sounded somewhat mean and angry, but that was probably because that was how she sounded. I couldn’t be too sure. All that I know is that I really needed a job and this was probably my path.

            I graduated from university with a Degree in Management, and I’ve been unemployed for almost six months, until now. Well, I’m not sure whether I was going to get the job or not, but my fingers are crossed.

            I took the elevator to the tenth floor, where the Human Resource department was located. I did ask the woman who called me yesterday as I was afraid of getting lost. As I got out of the elevator, I started to feel a little nervous. This was the only interview I’ve ever been to in my life, besides the interview for a job in a small restaurant near my house when I was eighteen.

            That was different. All they asked was whether I could balance a tray on my hand or not. I only lasted a month there because I, unfortunately, had the tendency to be clumsy, and I had dropped too many trays to even start to count. They transferred me to the kitchens, but all I could do was burn toasts and make half-cooked scrambled eggs. I can’t blame myself; that was my first cooking experience. They were too polite to fire me, so they told me nicely that maybe I should look for another job as they were going to close down. After I resigned, I never went back there, but I know that the restaurant is still operating until today. Well, it’s their loss.

            Nevertheless, this is a totally different environment. Not only that I am no longer fresh out of high-school, this was no small restaurant where only construction workers and students came to have their lunch or dinner. This is a multi-million dollar company that has crystal shops all over Malaysia. Those only made me swallow in the bile that was starting to form.

            Before making my way to the Human Resource department, I looked for the washroom first. God knows how I looked like after traveling all the way from Bangsar. I followed the signboard until I reached the classy looking washroom. I was glad no one was in there, as I was already in a bundle of nerves. I took my time to powder my face, and to comb my stray tangles into places. I put on a light lip balm on my dry lips just to give it a little color. Taking one look at myself, I felt quite satisfied. I knew I was no beauty queen, or else I’d try out to be a model or a movie star, or maybe a pageant queen. I had an average face on top an average body, and I was neither too short nor too tall.

            My hair was slightly past my shoulders, cut in layers, and straight out of the hairdressers about two months back. You can’t get beautiful hair naturally, I always believed that. Despite my fondness of wearing jeans and t-shirts, today for the interview I decided to be bold and wore a knee-length business skirt with a light pink shirt on top. I look businesslike alright, I thought to myself; let’s hope that gets me through the interview.