A ride for an opportunity

Confidence is key, or so it is said to be, and I have always tried to live by that motto to an extent, without sounding overconfident and cocky. So, without sounding cocky, I have always managed be a few steps ahead of the game, or at the very least a leg up in most aspects of my life. But, I am in no way perfect and I have superior peers, so this only applies to certain categories of life, although I find great importance in these categories. For example, I happened to be the first of my core group of friends to have a job, car and a license simultaneously, mainly because they had been my priorities for as long as I can remember, and with the right support from family I was able to get it done.

With this being said, the car, license and freedom that came with both became a popular asset to the friend group for a variety reasons. We no longer had to wait for rides from parents to hang out with each other, we could go to concerts (a favorite pastime), and crank the heck out of the car stereo without driving a parent or two crazy. Everything that we had wanted to happen started to happen and doors were opened for not only me but everyone in my friend group as well. While, these activities were a ton of fun, going out to eat often and concert tickets get expensive, not to mention this summer’s gas prices, so it came time that a couple of my friends starting thinking about getting a job to afford the lifestyle of being a teenager in 2018.

The main friend in question who wanted to get into the workforce had actually just left a part-time job due to it being a toxic work environment and an overall conflict of interest, so when we were going out and spending money, he had enough left over from the previous job to tide him over, but at some point, I remember having less and less money became a legitimate concern for him and something had to be done.

We talked back and forth for awhile about potential places of work and those who were hiring at the moment, but an essential question remained. “My parents are always working shifts that conflict with my interests, how am I going to work out the transportation for my interviews?”. As my response , trying to be as selfless as possible, agreed to be the one to bring him around if he had got any calls back, but the journey had just begun.The first week, give or take was slow, a lot of paperwork on my friends part, so I didn’t have any direct involvement just yet but it was pending.

The first place he had applied to was Burger King and he was discouraged when he didn’t get a call back within the first three or four days, so I recommended that he calls the store in order to follow up on the application because it would show initiative and might give him a leg up, this was advice my dad had given me when I secured my first couple jobs. Like clockwork, it came together and when he had called Burger King they had offered him an interview on the spot, 3:30 the following day. I had a day off from work and no commitments so I was fully on board to provide my friend with the tools he needed to better his situation.

The next day rolled around and we made it over to Burger King on time, if not a few minutes early for the interview. My friend quickly asked for a manager and I sat and waited for the interview process to unfold. The interview wrapped up and there was no official verdict but the manager had assured that their would be a phone call coming soon with an answer. There was no loss and no gain, so the mood was overall positive and we were able to leave indifferent and feeling accomplished in a way. Time progressed and I remember being able to tell that my friend had gotten increasingly discouraged as time went by without a call back, so i suggested that he called to follow up on the process to further show initiative and that was what happened.

The phone call didn’t help his situation, he was told that they didn’t have the amount of hours that he was seeking available to give and wished him luck on his job hunt. At this point, my buddy was about ready to give up for awhile when he got a call from Taco Bell, the other place he had applied to initially, and they offered him an interview at the end of the week, after school. As good as this news was we had reached a small issue, the time we were given for the interview was the exact same time is I was supposed to go in for my weekly guitar lesson, 3PM. It was at this dilemma that I felt the fate of my best friends professional life was in my hands, it was up to me to choose to take either the selfish or selfless path at this point.After some back and forth and consideration on my part, I decided to make the morally correct choice and text my guitar instructor and give him the proper notice that I would not be able to make it to the lesson that week to give my friend transportation to his interview. This decision I made, in turn gave him the optimistic view that he was lacking and we started to try and get to the bottom of what might have gone wrong at the first interview. The only thing I was able to suggest was to maybe try and dress up a tad for this one, in order to show professionalism , regardless of it being just a high school part-time gig, another piece of advice I recalled getting from my dad regarding professionalism.

By Friday, the day of the interview, we had already taken a ride to the store the previous day to get him a polo shirt and aside from that he made a point to clean up a little better and present himself in the best way possible. Upon arrival at Taco Bell, I could feel the mutual feeling of confidence we both felt during this attempt and in comparison to the mood at the first interview , it was a huge difference, for the better. By the end of the interview , I didn’t even need to be told of the outcome because he couldn’t hide the look of satisfaction he was wearing, but he was able to manage a few words, “I start Tuesday at 5”. Between the feeling of relief and excitement I felt from hearing that news I remember feeling so thankful for both of our sake that I was able to stay committed to helping my friend even though it took a mild sacrifice on my end.

Everything considered, the phrase “A friend in need is a friend indeed” definitely encompasses how I feel about this event in my life. I felt really good when analyzing how these events unfolded because I was able to recognize that I managed to allow certain successes in my life create promising potential in the life of one of my closest friend, and that is a great feeling. It also opened my eyes to how contagious success can be, even if it’s just maintaining a forward thinking and successful mindset, it will work wonders in your life and even in the lives of your peers.

Photo by oiZox on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA