Prompt
There’s a knock on my door in the middle of the night. I jump out of bed,
shaking from my acute stress response, and stumble over to open the door. On
the other side is...
Botner
...my father, holding an envelope in his hand. My eyes fly open wide. “You
look wonderful,” he tells me, smiling. “You know, you’re probably in the
best shape of your life.” I grab the envelope. “It’s a one-time offer,” he
tells me. “Sign it.”
I nod silently and take a deep breath. “So...”
He looks at me for a moment. “I know you hate living in America. I told some
of my contacts and asked them to find you a job. They’ve found one in
India.”
I let out a slow breath. “Why?” I ask him. “Why India? What job?”
He shakes his head. “I can’t tell you,” he says. “But you know I’m trying to
get you back home, so you’ll have to come.” He leans forward in my doorway
and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Happy birthday, son,” he says. “I’m so
proud of you.” I nod and step back, closing the door behind me.
Conclusion
He’s right, I have always wanted to live somewhere else, but not because I
hate living here. I just want to go out, explore, and be more adventurous.
So far, my Communications degree hasn’t done all that much for me, but
apparently it’s helped me in this case. According to these documents, the
job entails helping Indian business students better their English speaking
skills, so they can compete in a global market. Many of them are afforded
opportunities to come to North America, where they learn all this, but the
government has instituted a new program that requires people like me to go
over there for the people without means to come here. I’m not really
qualified as a teacher, per se, but I don’t think I’ll be doing too much of
it. They want their people to be able to communicate effectively in English,
but my clients will have already learned every other aspect of business, and
are already considered to be fluent speakers. This is exciting, I never
thought about going to Asia. I was thinking more along the lines of
Australia, or maybe Europe. The culture shock will be really interesting,
and I know I’ll be nervous, but right now, I’m just glad. It’s the probably
the best birthday gift I’ve ever received. Something falls out of the folder
as I’m looking through it. I reach down, and pick up a plane ticket. Now I
know why my father came with this information in the middle of the night.
The plane leaves in five hours. No time for anything else, I have to get
packing.
