I feel like I’ve been writing all day…

I spent all morning writing cover letters, updating CVs, composing emails.

I spent a few hours this afternoon writing responses to my online bookclub, engaging and discussing with other readers.

Then, I edited all that job stuff some more. What’s worse is they’re all in French (except the bookclub!) which makes the process take about 10 times longer. Usually my job application process is pretty streamlined:

1. Update resume with recent developments
2. Write cover letter using the building blocks from countless cover letters I’ve already written
3. Maybe send both to my mom or a trusted friend if I’m feeling really anxious
4. Spend 2 minutes composing a simple introductory email to attach my documents to
5. Hit send.

Today my process is more like this:

1. Study a whole bunch of examples of French CVs (they’re different than American ones!)
2. Start my template with a healthy dose of copy/paste
3. Google things like “professeur remplaçante description pour CV” to make sure I’ve got some French buzzwords to use
4. Start my cover letter with a healthier dose of copy/paste
5. Look up the equivalent translation to my college major and minor
6. Google how to type accents on a Macbook. The first two suggestions don’t work.
7. Spend 40 minutes sorting through WordReference and Dictionaries to figure out if there’s a feminine form of professeur and whether or not I need to accord the adjective (It’s a heated, complicated debate apparently. UGH MEN DON’T HAVE THIS PROBLEM)
8. Spend an hour obsessing over accents and noun gender and still get half of them wrong
9. Realize that after 4 hours of double checking every word and looking up appropriate expressions, I’ve only managed to write about 6 sentences
10. Write several emails in French to former colleagues and roommates asking them to read over my shoddy French
11. Look up ways to casually say “could you read these over when you have a chance” without sounding to formal or too desperate
12. Awkwardly try to fit in some friendly sentences to show that I’m interested in you as a person, not just because you speak French fluently…
13. Reread the email 4 times, then freak out that they’re going to hate me for being so opportunisitc and close the tab
14. Get over myself and accept that everyone does this
15. Hit send.

So, that’s been several days of my Spring Break this week. It’s a constant game of second guessing, scrutiny, and distraction. I just wrote back to a former colleague who was kind enough to edit the earliest version of my draft and therefore the least polished…the one where half of the dates were accidentally written in English instead of French…  She sent me back a list of corrections and her son’s resume which he’s working on translating into English which made me feel better.

Then I wrote back to my former roommate who I haven’t really stayed in touch with until now, which makes me feel a little shady, but she kindly said she would take a look this weekend. I hope one day I can offer her some kindness in return!

And now I’m writing this post to share with all of you.

Write, write, write, write, write! I think tomorrow I’ll just watch basketball. ❂

Slice of Life is a daily writing challenge during the month of March hosted by Two Writing Teachers. Visit their blog for more information about the challenge and for advice and ideas about how to participate.