Something About 6 AM

Intentional Living

Half a year passed and I decided to not chase the things of the past. I had lost total interest in things like; Fine men, parties, and smoking, because I realized they won't do any good to me. So, here's what I did:

I started living intentionally.

Sometime in February 2020, I had a Job interview at one of the best leading banks in Africa. I was applying for the role of a Content Marketing Executive in their creative department.

After resigning from my job in November 2019, I had sworn that I'd never ever do a 9 to 5 job again. Ever! Till I went broke, and started creeping into the state of depression, I updated my CV and applied for every job opportunity that came my way.

I didn't know so much about the professional aspect of content marketing, I just believed myself to be a digital marketer, and we all know that's just an overused broad term.

Here's what went down on the day of the interview:

I arrived at the headquarters in the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos, 30 minutes before the scheduled time for the interview. I made sure to look my very best. Professionally simple and classic, if – that's a thing. I went to the 8th floor to settle in for the interview. The people there looked happy, comfortable and secure. I breathed to myself, this is the kind of life I crave for oh God.

About 10 minutes passed interview time, I was in a room with two people. A lady, who didn't seem nice and receptive, early 30s, posh, good-looking, and a young man, who just kept his eyes and a grin on his face focused on me all through the interview.

The clock was not ticking too fast, they must've enjoyed hearing me talk.

Listening to what this young girl with no university degree knew about content marketing. They asked questions about how I could help create content marketing strategies for their new product and I gave answers, evidently.
I was surprised at how well I handled the interview process, with the half attention given by the lady. I figured she lost interest along the way. But the man, who appeared to be more fascinated than usual, got me to talk some more.
When they hit the final questions, I killed it too. I think, but there was just something wrong about the interview.
"Okay, thank you very much, for your time," they got up as I got up too to shake their hands.

"We'll get back to you soon on what we decide." The lady wasn't impressed, and I felt that in her handshake.

I left there feeling defeated, knowing that those folks were never going to call me. I was certain that they had other candidates for the job, and most likely, someone with a distinctive degree.

Here's what I learnt from that day:
It's really not about the degree, it's about the skills and solutions you are able to render to people's problems.

Yes, it matters that you should get a degree, so as to have you signified as an educated person, but in my years of experience and working with great people who pay less to people with no degree by the way, I've never seen 59% of university degree holders put up much to the work that they do. It's almost as if they stop wanting more, they enjoy the security of their day time jobs and I mean, it's the only way they know how to survive. And that's okay.

I made a commitment to myself, that I was never going to let anyone rub off my inadequacies to my face, and spit words of negativity to me. I will continue to believe in what I can do, and take charge of the things I have control of.

I think that's what intentional living is about. Being able to accept you for who you are and surrounding yourself with positive thinking and those who only want to see you succeed.

It's the reason why I started @melaninjulia on Instagram, my social journal.