it's been awhile...

...since i last pasted. since the last post, i have had three interviews with a funeral home i applied to (funeral home B). the third interview was this morning, and i just got the call that i landed the assistant job. i am extremely excited and i can't properly express myself.

dilemmas

i suppose this is not much of a dilemma per se, but a few weeks ago i applied to a pretty well-known funeral home a few miles from me. it was my first choice, as it was one of the nicer homes in the area, and it had a cemetery attached to it. ideal. this is also the funeral home that took care of my mom when she died, and she is currently interned in their cemetery. a little awkward, but it was still my main choice.

the only downside to this particular funeral home is that i would not be allowed to start my apprenticeship until i was done with school. quite vexing. however, i applied anyway as an assistant. i got a reply pretty quickly, to find they had no openings. i moved on.

last weekend i worked at a different starbucks in another city, and stopped by the local funeral home before i went home. i inquired about apprenticeships there, and whether or not i would be able to start before i was done with school. the two directors i spoke with told me that they would prefer that i not be finished with school. awesome. we spoke for almost an hour and i was essentially offered a job, but i still needed to send my resume and contact the manager of the home.

while waiting for an interview date for funeral home B, funeral home A called me and asked if i was interested in coming in for an interview as an assistant.

seriously?

part of me was happy but at this point, my ideal funeral home had shifted to funeral home B. beggars can't be choosers however, so i made an interview for this thursday. i am keeping my fingers crossed for funeral home B though, as i would rather start my apprenticeship. we will see where this goes.

jobs, jobs

i called the manager at the funeral home i hope to be an apprentice at. he had not gotten a chance to look at my resume, but said if he didn’t call me tomorrow, he would call me thursday to set up an interview. i am beyond excited, of course, but i am trying to play it cool. disappointment never tastes good.

getting this apprenticeship would e extremely beneficial to me. in the state of virginia, one has to complete a two year program of study and a 3,000 hour apprenticeship in a funeral home. some funeral homes require you to be done with school before you begin your apprenticeship, but not all. i, myself find it more beneficial to do both at the same time, where one helps the other and vice versa. again, i am trying not to be too excited in case it doesn't work out. however, i am fairly confident.

look! the first post!

i have been trying to avoid my usual "start a blog and just post random stuff" pattern and instead create an informative, journal-like blog. i made this account almost a month ago, and never made a post because i wanted to be able to create posts that told a story, educated and brought to light the various aspects of being a mortician, i.e working in the "dismal trade."

now, i realise a first post need not go into much detail about the trade itself.  after all, it's the introduction. however, i should make clear my involvement in this line of work.

i am currently dual-enrolled in two accredited schools for funeral services in Virginia. i have not yet been accepted into the funeral program, as i am completing all of my prerequisites at the moment. due to various finances, i won't be able to be in the program until the spring of 2013. it's a set back, but as of right now I can only afford to take two classes a semester.

when i first started going to school back in august of 2009, i had planned on funeral services being my intended major. however, i decided against it due to fear of my family disapproving or being disappointed or "weirded out" by my choice. two years later, i decided that to hell with what others thought. i never put much stock in fate, but i feel this is what i am meant to do.

let's see where this goes, shall we?