the call

I jumped up and down. I screamed like a 5-year-old. I felt a little light-headed, stopped for a minute, then started jumping all over again. Squeals of "They want me!" and "I'm gonna get me a job!" sprang from my smiling lips.

It was Tuesday night when I got the e-mail from Library of Congress that they were trying to contact me. Nobody was home, so I didn't have an ounce of shame or shyness about my squealing and bouncing.

I bounced around the apartment, in a parade of one, a little victory dance, like the ones seen at the 40 yard line. I made quick calls to family and loved ones. The conversations were peppered with words like "thrilled" and "proud" and "supreme ruler of the universe." (The last one was mine.)

The next morning, I woke up with an incredible lightness of being in my heart. I was getting ready to go to work, cleaning the kitchen, when I got the call to set up the phone interview Thursday, March 22nd.

It's an interview for my DREAM JOB as public affairs specialist at the Library of Congress. That's right, kids, the largest library on the planet, the most complete and storehouse of information mankind has ever known. And they want me spread the good news of secular humanism and enlightenment on their team. (Or, they will want me, if they don't already.)

Stay tuned for details. Meanwhile, chant a "go, Jeffrey" mantra in my direction.

I just read a quote from an e-mail signature. It seems appropriate for such good news. "There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming." -Soren Kierkegaard

I'll admit it, the prospect of living and working in DC and making such a huge change in my life is very scary. But I was strong enough to survive in Japan; it was a pivotal time for growth and change for me. So I suspect that DC could prove to be a similar set of wonderful challenges. The fear is overcome by the promise of new possibility.