I don't know if you have been following the story of "B" who is a homeless woman who wrote into Elle columnist E. Jean looking for career advice.
"I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can."
Well, E. Jean wrote "B" back in her column and this is what she had to say.
"This is what you did with your letter: You knocked me out with your courage and spirit. I am therefore, Miss Not Hopeless, offering you a four-month internship. Of course it’s the most hideously humdrum internship in America. You’ll be stuck with the tedious job of organizing research for my book, transcribing interviews, and analyzing data from 1,800,000 pages (not a misprint) of a college sex survey I did on Facebook. I looked you up and discovered you’re on the West Coast and that you write a highly entertaining blog. You possess a brain and access to a computer. Excellent! If you accept this internship, you’ll telecommute to my East Coast mountain office one hour a day, six days a week. At the end of the four months, if you don’t have a job and an awesome place to live, I will become your intern."
The blog E. Jean is referring to is The Girls Guide To Homelessness which is a great read and very inspiring. Anyway, "B" had this wonderful offer but didn't know about it. The way she discovered she had been offered the job was through Lilit who is a very long time reader on CDAN and also runs the site Save The Assistants. Lilit had been following the story because "B" is a regular commenter on Save The Assistants and so had posted the letter from "B" and the response from E. Jean. When "B" logged on yesterday to Save The Assistants she saw she had been offered the job.
I love happy endings and I love my readers.
Is a woman ghostwriting CDAN blog? The piece above does not read like it was written by a male.
ReplyDeleteAww, I love happy endings and your readers too!
ReplyDeleteWow! That brought tears to my eyes!
ReplyDelete*standing ovation for Lilit!!!*
ReplyDeleteawesome.
and yay for B and her undying spirit!
Job Well Done Lilit!
ReplyDeleteAWESOME, that is beyond human kindness!
ReplyDeleteAwesome job, Lilit! The readers here are the best!
ReplyDeleteWTG Lilit!
ReplyDeleteSire a suicide; dam bipolar; sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse; and now broke and homeless.
ReplyDeleteA tough nature+nurture hand this young woman has been dealt.
Please wish her well. It's going to be a lifelong tightrope walk with acrobatic elements for her. Here's hoping she can build a sturdy net beneath her from now on.
Therapy, therapy, therapy, + structure, topped with extra therapy and structure, plus meds if a treating psychiatrist deems necessary.
Wishing her all the best...
Er, not sure I understand what the hell's going on with that last post, but anyway...
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful!
You can live in the Walmart parking lot? They let you do that? I want to keep all my options open in this economy.
ReplyDeleteAssistants (executive, administrative, etc.), are the backbone of any successful person or company. They're usually the most underpaid and overworked employee and also the most loyal. Why is it the boss can be gone for a week, but if the assistant takes one day off the place falls apart?
ReplyDeleteGood luck to everyone involved.
Alana, that sounds like Enty to me. He can be nicely sentimental. :-)
ReplyDeleteYay for everyone involved!
And @sunnyside, you slay me! You are hilarious!
Califblondy, I completely agree! Support positions are incredibly important in getting whatever your business is, done. Companies always seem to value only the money-producing positions. LeSigh.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Finally in this crappy economy and rough times a silver lining for someone. YEAH!
ReplyDeleteE. Jean is awesome. You think Dear Abby would have made an offer to this girl?
ReplyDeletecalifblondy, I get told that after every vacay I take: "You are not allowed to leave us ever again! The place went to hell! No one knew how to do anything." LOL, (Which is obvious by the pile of work in my in-box which my workmate didn't bother to do.)
ReplyDeleteBest of luck and tons of good wishes to B, plus a nice golf clap to Lilit :)
But is it a paid intership?
ReplyDeleteI like the way this turned out!
ReplyDeleteAn Elle Magazine internship will increase her opportunities, it's very prestigious and people would literally kill for the chance to be able t put that on a resume.
ReplyDeleteI sent her something because what happened to her at the hands of Wal-Mart is inexcusable. I also linked this story in several places too.
I have seen a 10 fold increase in the numbers of people living in their cars and parking at a local church at night, it's just so heartbreaking to see this happening in this country, especially to the children.