It was July 16, 1995 and I was at City Hall to take a step that would change my life forever. I was about to get my working papers. I went to Room 302 and received my working card. Now I thought I was independent and ready to go out and get a job.

The first thing I did was put in applications around the downtown Buffalo area. That day I must have put in over 100 applications at restaurants, retail clothing stores, and hotels. For the next two weeks I had a feeling that a dozen people were going to call me for an interview, but no! So I kept job hunting, and thought the downtown area might not be a good spot to find a job. I decided to go to the mall. I filled out a bunch of applications at the food court. I was interested in one restaurant because my good school friend worked there, and he told me they needed people to work the dinner shift. I thought if he put in a good word for me, I might have a chance.

Well, days went on. One day, when I came home, there was a message on the answering machine. It was a job. A lady from a supermarket called me for an interview on Tuesday. I was very excited. This was my first interview. My mom and I went shopping for an outfit. When I went to my interview, the lady asked me a whole lot of questions like my Intro to Occupations teacher said would happen, but I was prepared for every question.

I didn't get the job, but now it's April and I learned that you can't get a job that easily. It's very hard work, but now I've learned from my mistakes of last summer. So here we go again! c