Just going through my drafts on the blog and I saw this post. Don't know why I didn't publish it early on in the year. I hope this resonates with who ever needs it.
Read and Be Inspired!!
On the morning of 28th of August 2016, my youngest son walked into the living room where I sat, he wanted me to turn on the TV, which I did. He fiddled with the channels and somehow got to the YouTube channel. As an Oprah fan, some of Oprah's videos were amongst the suggested ones to watch. He clicked on 'Oprah's Upliftment Speech at the Essence Award'. As he did that, he gave me the remote control and sat down with me to watch it - Now the reason I am sharing this part is because at that time I had started to and still do attach meanings to everything happening in my life. I am a strong believer that things happen for a reason and it is also an opportunity for me to learn. My son can barely sit still for 10 minutes but he did for close to 30 minutes. That has got to mean something, I remembered saying to myself.
The story Oprah shared about herself on this occasion was one I had heard her share a few times.
A little background - She read a book titled 'The colour purple'. She became so obsessed with the thought of acting in the movie no matter how little her role was going to be. She always prayed about it and made enquiries about acting auditions. She was invited to an audition for a movie and on getting there, she asked for the title of the movie and she was told with a different title. She said, she said to the casting director "But I prayed for colour purple, not this one". I think he didn't understand what she meant by that and handed her the script anyway. She recognised the names of one of the characters in the book The colour purple and she knew instantly that the original title of the movie she was auditioning for was The colour purple. After the audition, the casting agent said he will contact her when he has news for her about the audition. After waiting for months without a call from the agent, she decided to call him and he told her in clear terms that he will contact her if he has news for her. He added that she is not even an actress and other actresses who stood a better chance at getting the role aren't disturbing him as much as Oprah was.
This saddened Oprah and she went to the fat farm (A place people go to lose weight back in the day) thinking her weight stood in the way of her getting a role in the movie. She prayed and cried to get a role in this movie but she could not stop thinking about what the agent said "She was not a real actress".
She changed her prayer to be that she will be able to bless the actress that got her part in the movie and be able to go watch it. She sang this song after her prayer - I surrender all.
According to her she felt a shift and felt relieved, almost immediately a woman ran out to meet her on the track where she was and told her someone was on the phone for her. To her greatest surprise, it was the movie director who told her to come see him in his office the next day and that she got a part in the movie - The colour purple.
Like I said before, I had heard that story shared several times, but on this day 28th of August, it meant something to me, it struck a chord in my heart. You see, I was obsessed about a getting a particular job in my organisation, I attended an interview just few days before watching that video and I got a call back that I didn't get the job. It was devastating for me considering that it was my 6th interview.
I work in a big organisation and this role I was obsessed with is required in all the departments across the organisation, so vacancies pop up very often. My obsession with it started in October 2015 when I saw a vacancy for the role and I just knew it was something I could do.
I attended my first interview, I felt I gave it my all but didn't get the job. In December 2015, I attended 3 interviews and was unsuccessful. The excuse they all gave me was that I didn't have enough experience. I was devastated of course but I persevered. I had two invitations for interviews in January 2016 and I was still unsuccessful. I just said to myself, that I was done applying for these roles.
A statement that was consistent in the feedbacks I got was that I didn't have enough experience. I cancelled the two invitation to interviews I had slated in February. Decided to focus on my present job, gain more experience, be the best that I can be in that role and maybe later on, I'd give applying for new jobs a go.
In June, a similar role came up and I applied, got invited for an interview but didn't get the job, I was not really heart broken this time around partly because it was not my dream Job. I just shrugged and kept checking the website for vacancies.
Three vacancies came up in the month of July and I applied for them all. I was invited for interviews. Two were slated for different days in August and the third one was in September.
I was so optimistic about the first one and I thought I did great. I smiled, looked and talked confidently - so you can imagine my surprise when I got a call that I didn't get the job, reason was that I was not very knowledgeable about the role and department.
To say I was heart broken is sugar coating my state of mind at that time. Time and research went into preparing for this interview and this is the feedback I get? So many thoughts came to mind at that time, could it be that I was just being delusional about thinking I was capable of doing this job? Maybe I am not as good as I think I am? So many questions came to mind but I knew in my heart that I was good and qualified enough for this Job, I just have to be consistent and persevere.
The next interview was a week later and I was resolved not to let the feedback I received from previous interview deter me from doing excellently well. Got a phone call the next day that I didn't get the job but my interviewer added something to the feedback that put my mind at ease. She said I did great at the interview, it's just that they had someone in place and they felt that person was best suited for the role. I did not feel as devastated as I did before but I was this close to cancelling the offer for interview for the last one. I was just tired and emotionally drained, my husband convinced me to just go for it. I had nothing to lose after all. I grudgingly agreed.
After watching Oprah's video, the next day I called the HR department to confirm that I will be attending the interview.
I went fully prepared, the interview went great and I was told by the panel that I will be contacted the next day to let me know if I got the job or not.
I noticed that I was not obsessing about this particular interview like I used to. The next day, I barely thought about it, I said to myself - whatever will be will be. At exactly 2pm I got a call that I.......wait for it - that I got the job!!! I was surprised and the lady who called even said to me, "I am surprised you sound surprised that you got the job. You did excellently well at the interview".
The reason I sounded surprised was because I had gone for quite a number of interviews in the past and I always thought I did well, but I still didn't get them so I thought I was going to get the same feedback I always got.
Looking back now I am glad I persevered and surrendered to God. I did on the 28th of August 2016, I told God that I surrender all to him and I believe he will do me good.
I am glad I didn't give up, I am glad that even though I was eager to leave my former job role, I gave it my all. My dedication to it was still top notch. Most of all I am glad I persevered, learnt from mistakes I made during past interviews and believed that my dream to actually get this job role will come to pass.
If there is anything you are believing God for - I hope you do not give up. Pray, Persevere and Surrender - everything is going to be just fine.
Best Wishes
Bola Awe
