January, February and March…

So the application was in. An email confirmed it had been received. Now the wait began.

December was nice, lots of family time. January flashed by and we heard nothing . So I decided to contact HR and see if there was any news.

I rang. “Er, I applied for a post on the island…”.

The charming guy who answered assured me applications were being looked at and successful applicants would be contacted in due course.

We chatted and he said it might be a bit nervy waiting but if I got the job it would be worth it, he had never been happier the island was ‘paradise’. Somewhat reassured we waited.

Natural cautiousness kicked in. Experience has taught me not to count my chickens. Not to get too invested, its a protection against disappointment. But of course this guard against optimism can at times leave you open to its shadow, pessimism.

Waiting plays tricks on your mind. In the absence of information your imagination fills in the blanks.

Having waited a couple of months since my application and having heard nothing more since my conversation with HR I figured it was not meant to be. So reluctantly I began looking for jobs again. More seriously this time, no longer just looking on the off chance.

However once again the universe stepped in. The first school was lovely but just not right. The second while interesting was a bust because I did not have the prerequisite experience of working at a senior level in a church school. The third, well it would never have worked and after much deliberation I withdrew from the process. Almost certainly the best decision of my life but thats a story for another day.

So what to do? March was rapidly approaching and I figured I had missed the window of opportunity to find a new job for September so I started mentally preparing myself to stay.

Oh well.

And then it happened.

An email pinged into my inbox asking if I was still interested and available? I had been identified through the short listing process as being someone the education department were interested in interviewing!

I could hardly believe it. I replied at once to the affirmative and a date was set for a Skype interview.