08.30.06
Talking My Way through It
I have a big job interview tomorrow and, so, I am very nervous. I don’t do well in interviews because I am too aware of the stakes to be comfortable. But, in order to get to where I am going professionally, I must get comfortable in those settings.
Theodore Roosevelt used to say, basically, that one must at least pretend to be confident even if one is not —and that, by sheer force of will and resolve, what once was feigned becomes what one is. In other words, fake it ’til you make it.
I very much like and respect the people who will be interviewing me tomorrow, and I expect that that will help me through the process.
I envy people at times like these who have Providence in their hearts and the strength that comes with it. My family, of course, supports me and I know that my friends and potential colleagues are pulling for me. But I sometimes just want that talisman —or the incorporeal shield that saves me from myself and protects me where I cannot control what might come.
But let me be myself. Let me have half an hour to make my case.
Give me where I may stand and I shall move the world.
Bless me, [Archimedes].
