It's been a while! I've been really busy with my work. Honestly, I never worked so hard in my life. =_=" Let me give you a summary of what I have been doing ok...hmm..let's start from the day when Spring semester end.
So during the first week of summer holiday I drove from Minnesota all the way to Iowa to pick up a friend then we drove again to Atlanta, my manager's house. His house is huge, pretty, and tidy, and clean, and dunno la! For a guy at this young age able to own such a house, it's really an achievement. I mean of cos he has been working real hard for it. He and his gf are people I look up to because....hmm...wait...this blog is about me la...so back to the topic at hand...
Then on the next day we again drove to Missisiippi (I think I spell it correctly) where our company at. We have one 'hell' of training that week. 15 of us staying in the motel (there is another group with about 100 students staying in another motel), went through an intensive training, from communication skills and all the way to memorizing the sales talks. That was fun, and that was the first time in my life I memorized something word by word (Bible verses not counted ok). After a week of training, we are all ready to go out and sell books!
So my "territory" is in Grandville County, North Carolina. 5 of us staying in a small cutie pretty apartment in Henderson, and everyone of us working in different county. Our working schedule is from 7.30am to 9.30pm 6 days a week. Sunday no-no rest day!! Sunday have to drive 3 hours to another town for group meeting. =( No cell phones during working hours, no phone calls after 11pm, no tee-vee, no internet (I have to write this blog and save in my pen drive then bring to the place where we have Sunday meeting, then I can onnly curi use the internet connection there to post up this blog ok, so you'd better read every single words here..=p)....
Then come to the first day of my book-girl life. I was excited (yes, i was!!) and scared at the same time. After one week of training now is the time to show myself how much I've learned from all the student managers. It took me 15 minutes to drive from my apartment to my county, but it took me another 15 minutes to reach the country site. I still remember I was driving on the same street for countless time and then I talked to myself, since I am here, die die also have to go down from the car to knock on my first door. Its really scary cos you never know who is behind the door.
The first door I knocked on, no one answered.. Phew...thank God..Moving on to the next one, was a white lady, yes, slammed the door on me (I dont want to talk about racism today, maybe next post). Then I realised that the street I was at, wasn't quite the kind of family I am looking for. So I moved on to the next street. So, one Mrs. Jones (we call all African American Mrs. Jones) opened the door. Phew~ I was so so so so nervous. Her name is Jacqueline (I can remember still)...I told her like what the sales talks says...I am Ming the college girl from Minnesota, this summer I am working my way tru college doing an internship program here in this county...I can't get over how nice everyone has been to me here...In fact you may know who who who that I have visited....bla bla bla bla...Her first reaction was "girl, dont be nervous, today is your first day huh.." hahaha...She knew that I was new in this!! But she was really kind enough to let me show her the books. She really like the Bible (really cool one ok!! from Thomas Nelson), but she really dont have extra money for it now, as she is on fixed income and she is diagnosed with cancer. =( What to do, haih, so I told her dont worry, I will pray for her and end of the summer I will go back to visit her..=_="
So my first day was pretty good, met a lot of nice folks (all Mr. and Mrs Jones), in fact all the doors that I knocked on they gave me a chance to show them the book. First day no sales, but I was happy, meeting all sort of people was a really great experience to me. Some families that I have visited make me appreciate what I have in my life now. Some families they really want to buy the books from me to help me in this job but they just cant afford it (you can tell from their face), so a lot of families did not buy from me, but what I receive is blessing from them and a lot of foods!!! Even the first day I have a few invitation to go to their house to have dinner everyday! nice people are everywhere =) Some families even give me donation but I did not take it, because I told them my purpose to come here is to sell book to help myself go back to school and in the same times the books will benefit the family. Until today (2 weeks +++ already), I only took 2 donations unintentionally, the first one I found it when I open the folded check ($20), then the other $10 bills I found it when I was demonstrating the book to another folk. Some families they wrote down my name and keep me in their prayer ( I met a lot of Rev. Pastors, Deacon...), you know this kind of blessing is priceless =) Some Mrs Jones want me to come back during weekends to meet their son, some want my phone numbers (because of company policy, I did not give)... And a lot of people thought that I am Korean or Japanese. =_="
And of cos I met some nasty family too... This world isn't beautiful as it seems. It was a Monday, I met this family where she and her daughter at home only. So i demonstrated the children Bible (This is also very cool one!!), the girl loves it!! Because it is day-by-day stories, and have a lot of pictures, songs and so on. So what the little girl did was, she kept on bugging her mom to get her the book, but as usual, the mom said she cannot afford it. And the girl kept saying "mummy..i want i want i want..." then the mom straight away stared at her and kicked her away (i did not exaggerate).. I was scared!!! Then the girl came back and cried and still saying "i want i want i want", then the mom...woowaaaaa...slapped her and asked her to go away. I got really really scared and then the mom said to me "Now you can leave", I quickly packed my bag and ran to my car, the moment I stepped into my car I started to cry, cry, cry and cry. It was my fault. =( Cos I didnt do my pre-approach properly and I went to the wrong family, I was supposed to visit another family during that time, but since she opened the door already so I just went ahead to tell the mom why I was there. So that afternoon I couldnt concentrate on anything, and I just couldnt smile. So I decided to go home because I didnt want to let other Mrs Jones see my soury face. And that day I was sitting outside of the apartment for 9 hours until my friends came home(we do not have key because the manager dont want us to go home early). =_="'
I am not trying to be self-pity or what, but this job is not easy. Having hundreds of people turning you down each day will not let you feel any better. Especially during noon, oh my Gosh!! the hot sun can kill you. The weather is so hot, I dont think the weather in M'sia is this bad!! Everytime during the hot afternoon, when people slam the door on you, saying NO to you, the thought of "quit" will just pop in your mind (somemore my car no air condition, so my reward of getting into Mrs Jones house is to enjoy the AC..=p). But everytime I think of how hard my parents have been working for me and they never complained, then I will just tell myself to hanging there, just put my head down and go knock on the next door. So far, one of my friend already quit this job. Another one is quitting too. =( Sometimes its real hard when you see such things happen, because you yourself already lack of motivation but still you have to motivate your friends not to give up.
Sometimes I really feel down, and lonely inside, but be it a good day or bad day, everytime I go home I still put on a smiley face as I dont want my roomates be so stressful like me too. I mean everyone going through the same thing everyday, when my day is bad, maybe their days are even worst, you get what I mean? *sigh* And I really believe that there is no short cut in this job, its only hard work. Good summer or bad summer, one air ticket to go back to M'sia, or my whole semester tuition fees, its all depends on how hard I want to work.
*bish* It's now 3am, Sunday. The only time we are allowed to on our computer to do something. I was just done with my weekly sales report and weekly journal (I have to write weekly journal cos it's graded!! Dont forget this is an internship program...=_="). Darn tired, have another few hours for me to sleep then it's time to go for Sunday meeting. It;s gonna be so malu as this week my sales is really really bad (no eye see), but i'm ok because I know i have already worked hard. Hard works will be paid off one day. yes. One day. Very soon.
Cis...I miss Malaysia badly. Miss papa, mummy, kor-kor, and meimei (x 2). Miss people that I love. Miss my friends. Miss City Harvest even more. Miss Birdy. I want to go Emerge too!Well, Although everyone is physically far away from me, I am holding everyone close in my heart.
Actually I have a lot to share, but I am really too tired to type la! Tomorrow (Momday) gonna be a brand new day, and I know that it's gonna be another fruitful week. it's all work hard plus pray hard. =) My new goal is to love people with compassion, to let the Mrs Jones know I care for them, and also to bring sunshine to them..weeeheee....
Last but not least, to....
my family: mummy n papa dont worry about me..i'm doing just so fine, nothing can beat down your daughter, YET.
the one that I sayang: you always have that extra confidence in me and I really appreciate how you have been motivating me and love me. =)
XiaoXiaoJian: great to hear from you the other day, DREAM big huh. Go strike for your dream and I know you gonna make it. If not just come back to States to teman me (but pls wait until October ok..=P)
Birdy: Macau misses Birdy, jagung, friendster, tinki, maggie goreng, guai-leng-gou.
Shirley Boon: Thanks for the prayer, and that phone conversation really get me moving. Appreciate it a lot a lot a lot. and Happy Belated Birthday! Mwahz! You deserve a kiss..=p
friends in M'sia: too many to name. hahaha...=p but they know i miss them one!
friends in CHC: Can;t wait to join you all for services and cell group meetings!
friends in Bemidji: I miss Bemidji la! Missing that PM-Chang and Natalie-the-cam-whoreeeee..=p Wait for me to come back to go for road trip during end of the year!
ok. That's all for now. Hopefully I'll bring good news in the next post! WeeHee...Till then!
Cheerz,
Ming
Saturday, June 09, 2007
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