Now and Then, Here and There
Today's been a real mixed bag for me. My OP (stands for Overall Position, and is the final result that primarily determines your viability for tertiary entrance) arrived today, and along with it came a film crew for a local TV station. They rang up beforehand, and asked if I'd like to be filmed getting the envelope containing the results from my mailbox to go on the news tonight. "Sure!" I replied.
So anyway, I get the envelope and open it up, look at the results and give the camera my best cheesy grin/thumbs up combo (please note that this is POWERFUL stuff). So, they have a little chat with me (recorded) about what I thought of my results, what I plan on doing, etc.
At this point, I'm thinking how cool this whole situation is. Here I am, sitting on an OP 1 (with OPs being a number between 1 and 25, inclusive, with 1 being the best), and I'm gonna have my little moment of fame on the TV while I'm at it.
(Also found in the mail was a letter from Coles saying that I'd gotten past the group interview stage, and that they'd get in contact with me directly when an opening comes up at the local store. Very cool indeed.)
So, I kill time as I know best, by listening to music, reading, eating BUNS, etc. Flick through the channels on TV and happen across the coolest cheesy grin/thumbs up combo ever in an "On the news tonight..." ad. Yeah, I'm pretty happy.
More time was wasted through reading and the like, and then the news is on. I'm getting a bit worked up over a relatively small thing, but, hey, I think it's all pretty special. Few stories on people dying in unfortunate ways...poor guys. Oh look, OP story's started. Someone else being happy...shot of the postie delivering the envelope to my mailbox...someone else being happy...end of story.
..|.,
I've been built up, and knocked right back down. For some reason, I'd been expecting something like this, and not been advertising the fact that I was gonna be on TV to everyone I could get in contact with (although I did mention it to Sword Serenity...feel quite silly about that now). The other members of my family, on the other hand, saw no reason to hold back, so now there are many people who might have been expecting to see me on the news, and didn't. 'Tis somewhat embarrassing.
Anyway, at this point in time, I went to lie down for a while (incidentally, on my brother's bed, for no good reason other than it was closer and seemed more inviting at the time) and had a bit of a sleep. Got woken up by my dad, telling me that we were going to go out and have dinner at a favourite Vietnamese restaurant of ours to celebrate my results. I was feeling really quite disillusioned, and put a bit of a damper on things for a while until I brightened up at the atmosphere of the restaurant (the head honcho is a real character, and the place is filled with chatter and laughter).
I return home afterwards feeling much less imbittered by events, and after a while find myself sitting in front of the computer, reading an ICQ message from a friend who I hadn't been in contact with for about a year.
"Hahaha, just saw you on a news ad"
The message had been sent a while ago, but he was still around, so I got into a good conversation with him and caught up with the goings-on since I'd last seen him. He'd been keeping himself busy, and is now a qualified EFL/ESL teacher, and is planning on going over to Japan for a year to teach the language there, and scope things out a bit. Considering that he's only a year out of high school, he's really done a lot with him time.
So, back to the story, I guess this all ends with a happy ending. I'm still somewhat annoyed with the TV station, but their saving grace was the wonderful shot of my beaming face that prompted the conversation on ICQ. All's well that ends well, it's the simple things in life, et al.
(And for those who are wondering, the subject of this post was referring to the vertex that I seemed to be in today, and not to the anime series. The title of the series really caught my attention, though...might have to get a good look at it sometime...)
So anyway, I get the envelope and open it up, look at the results and give the camera my best cheesy grin/thumbs up combo (please note that this is POWERFUL stuff). So, they have a little chat with me (recorded) about what I thought of my results, what I plan on doing, etc.
At this point, I'm thinking how cool this whole situation is. Here I am, sitting on an OP 1 (with OPs being a number between 1 and 25, inclusive, with 1 being the best), and I'm gonna have my little moment of fame on the TV while I'm at it.
(Also found in the mail was a letter from Coles saying that I'd gotten past the group interview stage, and that they'd get in contact with me directly when an opening comes up at the local store. Very cool indeed.)
So, I kill time as I know best, by listening to music, reading, eating BUNS, etc. Flick through the channels on TV and happen across the coolest cheesy grin/thumbs up combo ever in an "On the news tonight..." ad. Yeah, I'm pretty happy.
More time was wasted through reading and the like, and then the news is on. I'm getting a bit worked up over a relatively small thing, but, hey, I think it's all pretty special. Few stories on people dying in unfortunate ways...poor guys. Oh look, OP story's started. Someone else being happy...shot of the postie delivering the envelope to my mailbox...someone else being happy...end of story.
..|.,
I've been built up, and knocked right back down. For some reason, I'd been expecting something like this, and not been advertising the fact that I was gonna be on TV to everyone I could get in contact with (although I did mention it to Sword Serenity...feel quite silly about that now). The other members of my family, on the other hand, saw no reason to hold back, so now there are many people who might have been expecting to see me on the news, and didn't. 'Tis somewhat embarrassing.
Anyway, at this point in time, I went to lie down for a while (incidentally, on my brother's bed, for no good reason other than it was closer and seemed more inviting at the time) and had a bit of a sleep. Got woken up by my dad, telling me that we were going to go out and have dinner at a favourite Vietnamese restaurant of ours to celebrate my results. I was feeling really quite disillusioned, and put a bit of a damper on things for a while until I brightened up at the atmosphere of the restaurant (the head honcho is a real character, and the place is filled with chatter and laughter).
I return home afterwards feeling much less imbittered by events, and after a while find myself sitting in front of the computer, reading an ICQ message from a friend who I hadn't been in contact with for about a year.
"Hahaha, just saw you on a news ad"
The message had been sent a while ago, but he was still around, so I got into a good conversation with him and caught up with the goings-on since I'd last seen him. He'd been keeping himself busy, and is now a qualified EFL/ESL teacher, and is planning on going over to Japan for a year to teach the language there, and scope things out a bit. Considering that he's only a year out of high school, he's really done a lot with him time.
So, back to the story, I guess this all ends with a happy ending. I'm still somewhat annoyed with the TV station, but their saving grace was the wonderful shot of my beaming face that prompted the conversation on ICQ. All's well that ends well, it's the simple things in life, et al.
(And for those who are wondering, the subject of this post was referring to the vertex that I seemed to be in today, and not to the anime series. The title of the series really caught my attention, though...might have to get a good look at it sometime...)