My sister: The online Phenomenon

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present... my sister.

My only sibling is three years older than me, and ever since I started this blog has been nagging me about it. The reason? She thinks this blog is the platform that will turn her into an online phenomenon. I don't want to discourage her enthusiasm but I honestly think this poor girl has no idea of the terrible things I could say about her.

She should be thanking the Lord I am actually a nice sister, cause otherwise she would not become an online phenomenon but a social faillure.

Still, my sister, "the online phenomenon to be" doesn't surrender, and she insists on me telling stories about her.

Just ten minutes ago we had a conversation that explains the situation quite well:

Sis: I have been reading your blog today.
Me: Really, that's good.
Sis: Yeah, and I've realised the post I like most is "What this blog is not".
Me: No wonder, it's about you.
Sis: Exactly, I think you should talk more about me, it's fun.
Me: Fun?
Sis: Of course fun! I actually like the posts about me most.

At that point of the conversation my fingers started to itch, and I felt the urge to start writing. I can't understand why she tells me this kind of stuff, doesn't she know I am going to tell you guys about it asap?

So innocent, poor thing.

Here you go sis, your third post in Such is Life, congrats.

Crossroads

Be careful what you wish for...

Months complaining about the job market, countless interviews that came to nothing and now... now I have two job offers, and I have been cursed (or are incredibly privileged, I still don't know which of the two) with the gift of choice.

Choices are double-edged swords, cause they always leave a lingering question in our minds: What if I had done something else? Law or Consulting? This or that? Here or there? The difference, in my case, is a number followed by four zeros and the uncertainty of ignoring what the future holds. Where will I be in a year if I choose option 1? Where will I be if I choose option 2?

I should feel fortunate, cause whatever I choose I'll be somewhere I want to be, and I wont be able to blame the crisis for my misfortunes, it will be my own choice, and that idea makes me feel I have regained control of my life after so many months of trying to find my place in the real world.

Will I make the right decision? time will tell, unfortunately we don't have a looking glass through which we can see ourselves in the future. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mistery... And today? Today I finished my classes at my current University forever.

I am done with lectures after six long years (and two degrees, don't you dare think I took longer than expected to finish my studies!) and I have been tasting a bittersweet sensation all day long. Happy-go-lucky days are over. My final Finals are here and then... then The Leap. I don't want to finish this post without mentioning my dearest friends and severest critics. I love you girls, and I'm going to miss our daily routine, the coffees, the beers, the laughs, the talks, the plans... As I told Ale this afternoon, it's been an honour!

The title of this post is Crossroads, I don't think I have to explain why... Congratulations Class of 09, we are finally done! See you on the Road... Such is life.

Hoping for the best but expecting the worst

Amazingly enough just three days after the interview with the HR girl from the law firm the assistant of one of the partners gave me a call to schedule an interview next week. I am a little bit at odds right now, reasons?

1.- Maybe I sounded more convincing than I thought I did and she thinks I have a chance with them (Unlikely but not impossible).

or

2.- She thinks I'm not suited for their firm so instead of telling me herself she is going to make me go through the toughest legal interview ever so that they can kick me out of their interview process for an actual good reason (Very likely and possible).

I really hope it's option 1, but I expect 2 to be the right answer, just like the song: "Hoping for the best but expecting the worst..." I'm not going to fall without fighting though, and I'm spending the morning going through all my notes on contracts and business law.

Whether you know where you'll be next september or are wandering aimlessly on these troubled job-search waters, I'm sure we all want to be forever young, but... (wait for it!) SUCH IS LIFE!!

Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?

The answer is... No

After finishing the last post I feel compelled to tell you how terrible my interview went today.

AWFUL.

The position was Junior Analyst at a M&A firm. I was dead nervous since it was my first interview of the kind. I had two 40 minute interviews with two very nice interviewers, but I am not smarter than a fifth grader, so I can't have passed both interviews.

After talking for a while about my CV (that's easy) the first interviewer asked very quickly if 17% of 38 was larger than 38% of 17. I remained quiet for a while and opened my mouth just to say:

"17% of 38 is larger" and the interview carried on without me worrying about the stupid question.

I was doing more or less fine when the guy asked in how many different ways could six people be ordered in a queue, and I fell silent again. Mind totally blank... I give a very wrong answer, which I'm not going to tell you and the interview carried on.

I realise my mistake and try to fix it only to keep giving a wrong answer.

Interview number two was less embarrasing since my mistake was a lack of financial knowledge and not basic math. Still embarrasing though.

Once on my way home I keep going through the interview and suddenly realise something:

17% of 38 = 38% of 17. OH NO, I ignore one of the basic rules of math: a x b = b x a, how could I go through school????

And then I couldn't even come up with the answer to question number two, my mom did (and my sister*): 6!, and that is not an excited 6 but 6x5x4x3x2x1...

I feel mighty stupid... but hey! I was too nervous to think clearly. Next time I'll be a little more ready, but I have the feeling these guys won't give me a second chance no matter how good I am talking to people... Oh well, such is Life.

Worst of all is I have realised life has been spoiling me these last 23 years, and now I suffer from failure intolerance. All I can say is I thought I was smarter, not only smarter than a fifth grader but plain smarter. Yet again, I proved myself wrong. I need some rest...

* My sister was reading this post as I wrote it and insisted on my writing that she knew that basic detail too, I have to let the world know she is intelligent and I am not. Well, lucky she knows math, unlucky she wasn't doing my interview today.

Popularity, NOT Notoriety

What a week... Illness gave way to HR interview debacle which in turn gave way to my new internship and finally today... I screwed up another interview!!

But that story will have to wait till later cause I want to tell you another one about something essential in today's Blogosphere, and actually life: POPULARITY. I believe we all seek popularity one way or another, and when we find out we are not as popular as we thought we were, we get really disapointed.

I wanted to see how popular (or notorious?) my blog actually is, cause people keep telling me they read it, but all the assurance I get is their word, and some of them are not to be trusted... (and here I'm being ironic or sarcastic? I just don't really mean they are not to be trusted, only kidding) Anyhow, I decided to google this site reaching some very strange conclusions. Being incredibly optimistic I typed "Such is Life" and got at least 300,000,000 answers... it seems too many people have writen books and stories with that title... what I liked most is that it turns out Ned Kelly's last words were these three that give title to my blog.

I then decided to add my name to the search and my blog didn't turn up either.

Here comes the hilarious part (for you, embarrasing for me) if the word blog is added to the search, then...

"Ask sister Mary Martha" and I had to click on that link... OMG (literally)

and another one:

"Martha's blog: Finding meaning in the second half of life"

And then I realised that guy was right...

"That guy" is a guy I met at a bar (literally called Coyote Ugly, in D.C. -very very ugly place-) with whom I only exchanged one word:

- That guy: What's your name?
- Me: Marta
- That guy: That's a granmother's name
- Me:... (I gave him a nasty look and walked away)

So yes... it seems I have a granmother's name, at least in anglo saxon environments.

Anyway... I kept trying to find my blog and realised it is nowhere to be seen on Google, and I am crushed. There's no way to find it, so I'll have to keep bugging you on Facebook and personally till this little website has the notoriety it deserves ( I mean popularity!)

Yet another story... Such is Life.

To learn more about Ned Kelly you can read this website: http://www2.visitvictoria.com.au/displayObject.cfm/objectid.000E92DE-B241-1D06-970F80C476A90000/vvt.vhtml

What not to do...

The high temperature is gone so I'm back to class and routine.

I had an interview a couple of hours ago, it was with a girl from the HR department of a very important law firm (if not the most important).

Everything was going great until she asked if I was interviewing with any other company, and I made a huge mistake: I TOLD HER THE TRUTH, and the truth is I am interviewing with other companies, but not other law firms. And then she asked if I was more interested in business and finance or law, and I made an even bigger mistake (cause huger doesn't exist) and I said... BUSINESS.

I don't know why I just couldn't come up with a good reply. I blame the terrible cold I have for it, my brain is blocked.

I did sound confident, or at least I think I sounded confident, now I really don't know! But no matter how much she liked me, I'll always be the girl that made clear that she'd rather work for a consulting firm rather than their law firm. And I really like these guys!!!!

A thousand interviews and I still had to screw things up in a HR one (I thought those were my forte).

I'll go now and bang my head against the wall for several minutes, or hours.

Such is Life...

Such is Life is still "such" but now it looks nicer

Isn't it cute?

My muse has been gracious enough to come back and I have decided to give her a nicer place to live in.

May I present the new Such is Life, well at least its new layout, cause it is still what it always was: a place to write my randomest thoughts while I figure out what I'm going to do with my life (and while I keep my self busy while being sick!)

I'm still having problems editting my blog with the new layout, but it is totally worth it.

The creative brain of all this dwells here: http://betterinpink.com/ it is a lot of girly stuff, but I love it!

For the sake of memory keeping, here's my homage to the old Such is Life:

Sick of sickness

In such times as these the worse thing that can happen to you is fall sick. Not only because you feel like hell (head and back ache, high temperature and the subsequent nightmares...) but because everyone thinks you have THE FLU, as in H1N1 flu... me included. I've been trying to track the source of my ilness, and have come down with two possible sources of it and none of them relate to anyone who has The Flu, but still, if you know me, you must know I'm obsessing about it. A lot.

I have the weirdest nightmares when I'm sick, last night it consisted on me infecting the whole world with my flu, but there were massive factories involved in it, but still I was aware I was in my bed and half awake... and I kept waking up and dreaming the same dream all night. By 7 a.m I was so tired of not sleeping that I decided to wake up and watch TV, wich is what I've been doing all day long.

I have a very busy month of May ahead. Classes and interviews as usual, but to that you have to add an internship that should start this week but that may not because I am... sick.

And with these words I'm going to shut my computer and keep doing nothing but fill my bin with tissues. Nice.

You all keep away from me till further notice.