Despite The Odds

My transformation

from down in the mud to up on the surface,

Blossoming in the sun,

didn’t stop at a transition from a big-box hell

To a jewelry store purgatory.

Because that is really what it was…

A purgatory.

There was a fast-growing sense that it was

A holding place.

A temporary shelter.

A rehab facility set to integrate me back

Into the professional world.

I hadn’t forgotten my real dream-

To return to the banking industry.

It was what I knew best,

What I had grown accustomed to

And become spoiled by.

There was just one major set back-

My failed credit.

Years of debt had piled up

And forced my husband and I

Into bankruptcy.

Banks check the credit of their candidates.

The manager at my former job

Told me I had little to no chance of

Being selected by any bank

At this rate.

Despite that forewarning,

I had applied to nearly thirty banks.

Or at least thirty positions in some

ten or twelve banks.

I had gone to an interview in the late summer,

Just after losing my career.

It was a full-time position in a local credit union.

It failed.

I had gone to another interview in the fall.

It was part-time at a bank that was growing rapidly

In my area.

It also failed.

I went to a third interview in December,

At a major bank thirty miles away.

I told them I really needed the job

And that it would make my Christmas if I was hired.

Still, a failure.

Just after moving to the jewelry store,

Which happened around Valentine’s,

I was interviewed for a mere 20 hour teller position

At another major bank.

This bank had high expectations of its people

And somewhat ridiculous goals,

But I was desperate.

Still, a failure.

That same week, however,

I was interviewed by another bank

That was big out west, but small here.

It was also thirty miles away, like the one in December.

But when I walked into its lobby the first time,

I felt like I was at home.

It was my fifth attempt at a bank interview

And it was the first one

That the managers made me feel like

They were actually impressed with my resume

And skills.

The others had all worn poker faces.

That bank called me back for a second interview.

In the second interview, I was told they really wanted to consider me.

But I didn’t hear anything for more than a week after that.

Like the others, I began to write it off.

Until their HR called me with an offer, late one evening.

Of course I took the offer.

Despite everything.

Despite a new job at a jewelry store that would have to compete with it.

Despite my pregnancy, which they did not yet know about.

Despite knowing that once they did the background check,

I was probably doomed……

….Somehow, I had found the one bank that didn’t care about my credit.