A New Job And A New Baby: The Day I Grew Up
On Tuesday, April 3rd, I officially grew up. I received the two most important phone calls of my life (at the exact same time no less) and found out that in about nine months I was going to be a mom who worked full-time at a publishing company. It was as though all of my dreams came true at once, and to this day it’s still a bit hard to believe.
To explain, I’ll start from the beginning.
My name is Kaitlin, and I used to write the “Funemployment” series for HelloGiggles. My posts focused on life as a college graduate who was having an incredibly hard time finding a job in San Diego. As a result, I moved back in with my parents to see if that would make the possibility of being financially stable a real possibility. I ended up taking a HelloGiggles writing hiatus, however, when my life changed at the beginning of April. But first, there was the beginning of March.
My boyfriend and I had plans to go to Las Vegas over the first weekend of March. It was going to be my first time there, and I was pretty excited to get free drinks while wasting all of my precious money at the Blackjack machines. About a week or two before we left, I received a phone call from the publishing company I’d been dying to get an interview with – and to my surprise they were actually inviting me to do an interview. I had a powerful feeling that this publishing company was the place I was meant to work at, so I directed every ounce of positive energy I had toward receiving a phone call from them. But the gods of energy-directing have a pretty silly sense of humor, since the HR person on the phone asked if I could come in for the interview on the day I was scheduled to fly out to Vegas. Since the trip was already paid for, I had no choice but to ask if we could push the interview back to the Monday I would be flying home, and hope that I would be able to get there in time. She said that was totally fine, and I quickly placed my actually-making-it-to-my-job-interview anxiety aside in my brain. I had to do everything I could to prepare for this interview, and choose my Vegas outfits at the same time.
After having my favorite leopard-print cardigan, pants and skirt stolen from my room at the Hard Rock and barely breaking even at the slot machines, I exhaustedly said goodbye to Vegas while I studied my job interview study guide on the plane. My selfless boyfriend offered to drive me to my interview (which was three hours away from San Diego, the city we flew into) so I could continue to prepare in the car. This meant the world to me, and had he not driven me that day we probably wouldn’t be expecting a baby girl in a few months, and I probably wouldn’t have a budding career that allows me to support her.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I found out that I was pregnant, I had EIGHT interviews with a variety of people at the publishing company. It would have been nine had the final interviewer not dialed the wrong number for our phone interview, but eight interviews surely felt like a solid number and a guarantee that they were pretty interested in what I had to offer. Sadly, they decided to hire an intern to fill the Editorial Assistant position I had applied for, but asked if I would be interested in applying for an internship instead. I reluctantly said yes (trying to get an internship AFTER graduating college just feels strange), knowing that any “in” I could get at the company would be worth it in the long run, and they told me that they would get back to me in a week or so. I was a bit disappointed (read: devastated), especially since I was SO ready to quit my restaurant job. A girl can only refill so many sodas before she loses her mind.
In addition to my job and work stress, I had some serious eyeball stress. I needed new contact lenses ASAP, but had to get a referral from a doctor in my new town of residence. So I scheduled an appointment with a new, regular doctor so she could give me a referral to a new eye doctor. At the end of the appointment, she asked if there was anything I was worried about, and I mentioned that my period happened to be about two weeks late. I, however, am too cheap to buy pregnancy tests when there’s a possibility of getting a free one (plus I was absolutely terrified to pee on that little stick and see it magically change my entire life with two little pink lines), so I asked if I could simply pee in a cup before I left. So I did, and I waited a few days for her to call me back with the test results.
On Tuesday, April 3rd, I was finishing up my miserable work shift at the Mexican restaurant when I felt my phone buzz. So I quickly stepped into the employee bathroom and answered – it was my doctor, and she had some news. The test was positive.
I instantly burst into tears. Not only was I a college graduate with a depressing part time job who was living with her parents, but I was also PREGNANT. I was pregnant, and terrified for the financial well being of the baby I was undoubtedly going to “keep.” As I cried on the phone to my doctor, there was a call on the other line. It was the publishing company I had been waiting to hear from. I told my doctor I had to go because I had a really important phone call on the other line (which is obviously one of the dumber things I’ve said, since finding out I was going to be a mom was pretty important too). But she understood, so I took the call. And that’s when all of my dreams came true. The HR person on the phone offered me a full-time PAID internship that would most likely turn into a regular position, and asked when I could start. My tears disappeared, I started shaking and smiling and graciously accepted the position, with a start date of April 17th. As I walked back to the front of the restaurant to do my server checkout and get my tips for the day, I secretly began planning my exit. I couldn’t wait to turn in my two weeks notice and get the hell out of there.
But first, I had to tell my boyfriend (and my parents) all of my big news…
To be continued.
(Image via Shutterstock).
