Forbidden Fruit (gxg)

Part 35

"How do you feel about your job interview tomorrow?"

As I sat across from Tara, she asked me this question a few weeks after Kori and I reconciled.

"I'm a bit nervous, I won't lie," I said to Tara, "I know that we've talked about the incident that happened at my last nursing job, and I'm working through it. I just feel like I keep psyching myself out, and telling myself I can't be a nurse again."

I had an interview set up for the next day for a nursing job, however it wasn't the kind of nursing job that I had done before. It was remote, working as a telehealth nurse.

No seeing patients in person, no chance of what happened to me before happening to me again.

Tara looked at me, "Ashley, you can be a nurse again. I feel like you taking this job interview is a great sign that you know you can be as well. What exactly made you take the interview?"

"Well, the company reached out to me on LinkedIn for an interview. I thought about it for a day, and thought maybe it would be worth it to see what the job was about. You know that I've felt a bit lost since I stopped being a nurse, even while I worked at Hollis. Who knows? A job like this might help me find myself again. Kori also really helped encourage me to take the interview. It's just an interview. If I don't like the sound of it, I don't have to do it."

"Exactly," Tara smiled at me, "You know, I'm proud of you for even considering it. This isn't something you would've done when I first met you."

"You're right, it wasn't something I'd have done."

Just like the job, the interview was virtual, so the next day I wore a dress shirt and blazer up top, and sweatpants below during it.

My heart raced as I sat at my desk, my laptop in front of me. As I waited for the interviewer to join the call, my phone vibrated.

I looked down at my phone to see that Kori had texted me saying:

You've got this. Good luck, I love you.

Even just those small words of encouragement meant everything.

As I was turning my phone on airplane mode so it wouldn't ring at all by chance during the interview, the woman who was going to be asking me questions joined the call.

"Hi, Ashley!" she said in a friendly tone, "My name is Anna, I'm the nurse manager. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi Anna," I said, "It's very nice to meet you."

From there, the interview was about a half hour.

And I had a really good feeling about it.

I was concerned that Anna was going to ask me about the gap on my resume, but she didn't. Instead, she seemed very interested in all of my nursing experience.

"What makes you want to work virtually?" she asked me, "I see you've been in a hospital your whole nursing career."

"I need a change," I said, "While working in a hospital is so rewarding, and no two days are the same, I need something that is different. I'm ready for something new, while still being familiar at the same time. I love being a nurse, I just want to do it in a different capacity."

Anna smiled at this and said, "I completely understand. That's why I left bedside nursing as well as came here."

At the end of the interview, Anna said that she would be in touch.

For the first time in a year, I was interested in becoming a nurse again. I thought that after the assault, I'd never want to be one again.

But now I had hope.