Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Frost/nixToen

The job fair began at 10am. I figured that since it went until 2, and it was a job fair, no need to be there right smack at ten, so I gave myself a more leisurely start. I arrived in midtown around 10.45 or so.

The event took place in a hotel but the line was outside. A very long line. It moved pretty quickly though. Every so often, you'd see a person turn back and leave, shaking his or her head. (Interestingly, the job fair was hosted by Women For Hire, but there were a number of men in the line too.)
Soon I saw that the line went all the way down the avenue block. It was quite cold, but I had on my standard issue coat, gloves, hat and scarf. Sadly, my feet were pretty chilly in regular shoes. Fortunately, I was tearing through an adorable YA book, so I did my best to forget where I was and how cold it was.
After standing on the line for thirty or forty minutes, I saw that it kept right on going down the next street block. And then doubled all the way back.

By that time I had lost all feeling in my toes, as well as most of my confidence that it would even be worthwhile. Another letdown; I should've known, what with the record numbers of unemployment in this town.

So I turned and left. It was physically painful to walk on my numbed feet--ouch! And I decided there's a great metaphor in here somewhere--a long, twisting, neverending line, stranded out in the cold among so many strange, surely more qualified faces, alone, not sure what to do, not sure what decision is best, feeling small and unimportant and so damn cold.

And I walked away.

3 comments:

Schoolgal said...

I am so sorry. The event was covered by Channel 7 from
12:30 - 1 pm. They spoke about the long lines as well as the seminars also offered.

Yesterday they reported it would be a good idea to get there early because they were expecting record turn outs.

The event was open to men this year. But I understand only 1,000 jobs were available.

If I hear about another event, I will let you know.

Schoolgal

Ms. M said...

Oh, sad. My friend is California is looking for a job and one online site that he uses always tells you how many people are applying for each job. It's really depressing he said.

Angela Watson said...

I'm sorry, that really sucks. Ugh.

What field(s) are you willing to go into? What are you NOT interested in doing?

Trying to brainstorm some ideas for you... :-)