In Focus

Awaiting news, I went out on the porch of my rundown apartment in South Tampa to catch the purple-hued sky from the crescent moon and Venus sharing their home. After the sun escaped the city, the stars upon the blank canvas glimmered behind the city's lights refusing to let them shine over them. 

Refresh, refresh, refresh. 

Every hour, refresh. Awaiting the news from a job I worked so hard toward for the last fifteen years. I needed this life change and looking around the apartment I rented from, I needed the money. Why do companies do this? Taunt you with emails saying to check for the results of your application at a specific hour. Just rip the bandage off! To keep notifications from distracting me, I silenced the brick device we all have from a company named after a fruit and went back to sky gazing.

The sound of a xylophone? My alarm! 

Waking up I got ready for a double shift I picked up at the bar downtown. Bartending on the weekends was a way for me to make extra cash and keep doing photography during weekdays. I did a mental check heading out the door. Coffee, keys, wallet, name tag, purse, shit! Forgetting to check for the email I stayed all night up for! How it slipped my mind after falling asleep on my patio furniture was beyond me. There it was. The email. The life-changing email. Clicking on the message from Sarah Bartoli read:

Dear Ms. Hatch,

After carefully reviewing all the applicants for the position of the editor team at National Geographic we have decided to continue with your application for the position as an Entry-Level Article Reviewer.

Please respond within the week if you are still interested in the position. We will need to discuss your starting date, living, payroll setup, and reserving your spot in Orientation. Call me during office hours from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. My work number is found below!

Best Regards, 

Sarah Bartoli

HR for National Geographic

Work: (202) 471-7724 ext 42

“If you experience, you learn. If you learn, you grow. If you grow, you wish. If you wish, you find.”

-National Geographic 

I ran to the bathroom to face the dinner I had the night before in my porcelain sink. This was the news I dreamt of ever since I was 13 years old looking through my grandfather's old, National Geographic magazines. Of course, the vision was to be a photographer for the print, but getting a foot in was the gateway I needed. With this news, going to work to serve wealthy white men screwdrivers at 9 p.m. seemed below me but to pay for the big move became the priority.

Holy crap! I work for National Geographic! Getting off the phone with Sarah the following morning, we finalized my move and orientation date for the following month. Instead of bringing everything with me, I decided to sell all my furniture and start new. I had been saving up for this for the last two years between photography gigs and picking up shifts at the night club. Just have to get through the next three weeks.

With the moving van on the road, my sister, best friend, and I were ready for the 20-hour ride to DC. Ten hours in, we had already finished the catch-up talk about jobs, possible relationships, who's having a baby first, where to stop for lunch, and talking about the last 25 years together. So, we had moved into the crying phase, and "please visit me as much as you can" phase of the talks. Then, the tired and hangry phase where my best friend Aimy took over driving for me so I could rest. Finally, an hour away from my new future! My stomach was turning from the mix of emotions of fear and excitement that my brain couldn't decide which was more important. 

"You have arrived at your destination" It startled all of us; the GPS voice of a monotone, recently divorced sounding woman. We got our belongings as I got my key from the super and went up the elevator to Apartment 6D, my new home.

"Welcome to the Team!" The orientation consisted of eighty people, separated into groups of their department of new hires. I was luckily part of a group of ten making it easier to not feel like I did on my first day of High School; in a sea of new faces that would judge me for the next four years because I didn't wear Abercrombie & Fitch. Instead, it was me plus nine new faces of the National Geographic editing department. Towards the end of the "short" seven-hour orientation filled with awkward tuna salad sandwiches, policies, and harassment guidelines, I only contact with four of the ten new faces. Finally, after given our assignments, new badges, and company email, we - Gene, Sierra, Luka, and Sampson - were free of the meeting room and met for drinks at a pub across the street. 

After our first three months with National Geographic's editing department, the four of us worked laboriously coming up with new ideas and completing tasks before our boss could give us a deadline. The five of us were up for a promotion well deserved after three issues of magazine articles being edited by us. Our group of five was a boss ass family that worked, ate, and slept devoted to National Geographic. With my two-bedroom being walking distance from the office, it was practically home to Sierra, Luka, and I. Sierra, temporarily moved into the guest bed because she's moving out of her overpriced, outdated studio in the "urban" district. Gene didn't usually stay to go back to his family uptown. Then, Luka, he and his girlfriend are splitting and she seems to like it better when he crashes in- I mean next to me. Currently, our team was taking on the following month's print of Global Warming due to the effects of meat consumption. Our proposal was first thing in the morning and determined if we got the promotion for the next quarter so we prepared and all slept at my place.

After getting the promotion, I wanted to work my way more into the photography department because that was the dream and goal when I started. Luka thought it was a great idea and helped me get our group to collaborate with the photography department on where and what we wanted to print next. Quickly, our departments started doing meetings and I got to show them my work off hours. One of the girls from the photography department, Tara, showed a landscape shot I took to her boss and not to brag but... I got an interview! Years of photography and months of hard work again were paying off.

The week after Chris, the head of the photography department, said I would be a great addition to the crew of her team I quickly became overwhelmed. She needed an answer by Monday. The team I was currently part of was my family for the past four months. I did not want to say goodbye to another group of friends and family. I decided to stay focused and decide Monday walking into Chris's office. 

Seeing stars was uncanny. I never knew they were so bright! Just last year I only could see a faint twinkle from my rotting apartment in South Tampa. Remembering the fantasy of a dream job I started 13 months ago in DC seemed so long ago. 

The day I gave Chris my decision, I was walking to work with Sierra, Luka, and Gene after an all-nighter on an editorial project. It was mid chatter that I realized I would not be saying goodbye to another family. So as I head into her office I knew exactly what my decision was. Although my dreams started to look unclear that week, camping in the middle of the Swiss Alps eight months later for National Geographic's photography team helped put them into focus.