A week that felt like a month

If I remember correctly a week has seven days... 

...but man this week felt like every day hat 48 hours. So many things happened and basically I am just writing this entry to process. If you actually make it to the end of this entry though: Thanks <3

Monday: I have been looking for a job for two months. All of them were for positions in Sweden and I was either rejected or never got an answer for every single one. When I changed to looking for jobs in Vienna, offers were just pouring in. A lot of them for standard software development which is cool and all but not what I truly wanted to do. However, a few weeks ago a friend of mine told me about this, monthly event where game developers meet up, socialize and present their projects. So I took all my social skills and bravery and attended said event. Knowing absolutely no one there I awkwardly squeezed into conversations of people that had already known each other or worked together and just introduced myself hoping I would stay in people's minds and getting an insight from the people already doing what I am dreaming of. Long story short, I got to meet a bunch of incredible people and had some super interesting conversations but above all I connected with a producer who was offering a position as a QA Analyst. Now flash-forward to past Monday. I had sent my CV to said producer and was invited for a job interview. Making my way to the studio super close to my apartment, prepared with a fancy outfit, my best behavior and a printed version of my CV (made a great impression), I was super nervous now that I actually had an opportunity to work the industry I had dreamt of since I was 12. I was greeted very nicely and the job interview quickly felt super comfortable and very easy. The people were genuinely interested in me and had challenging but interesting questions and I think I answered them quite well. They ended up letting me play the game and things became surreal. I was sitting there in my business-y outfit playing a video game as I would at home, that by the way looked amazing and got me even more excited for the position. The team ended up inviting me to have lunch with them. Trying not to forget that I still didn't land the job I still tried to impress them in a subtle and humble way and making sure they knew I was the person for the job. Lunch was nice and I went home already imagining what it would be like to work there and with the people that I already felt comfortable talking to and were super interesting too. I ended up completely forgetting that I had a tutoring session until my student sent me his task for that day. Getting home I felt pressure falling off my shoulders and a headache kicking in, so I changed into more comfy clothes and had one of the best naps of my life. Somehow the guy I'm tutoring had made crazy improvements and I was super proud of him understanding things he previously hadn't. My ego was as high as ever after what felt like a successful job interview and achieving progress with my student. I was super looking forward to my weekly pubquiz and hanging out with my friends. I went and probably mentioned like 20 times that I really wanted the job. Coincidently, it was also the last shift of one of the waitresses at the pub who we had become close with so we celebrated with her too and it just felt like a perfect ending to a great day.

Tuesday: Waking up, I immediately checked my emails. No news. I started overthinking all the things I had said and done and how people reacted at the job interview and hoping they liked me and that my skills were enough for what they needed. I kept updating my emails every 15 minutes, getting more nervous and anxious about the interview every time. After lunch I met up with my dad to buy new badminton rackets and just as I was telling him and my sister about how I checked my emails so frequently I realized I hadn't done it in a while. And just as if the universe had heard me in that moment my emails updated and an email came in "Dear Hannah, we would like to offer you the position...". In the middle of the street I screamed and hugged both my sister and my dad. I had gotten the job!! After spending some time with my dad and telling him how excited I was, I ended up spontaneously also meeting up with my mom and going for a nice walk with her. A perfect spontaneous day that finally ended my search for work. On top of that, telling my friends I found a job and them being as happy for me as they were was beautiful and made me feel really loved.

Wednesday: I had signed up for a cool VR study at the university, where I previously worked at. The study was super cool and didn't take long. Afterwards I dropped by my former colleagues and had some super nice conversations, telling them about the job I had just landed and how excited I was. It felt super nice, seeing them again and spending some time talking to them (like the good old times). Later that day I played some DnD but the most important thing of that day was the fact that I started watching "Killing Eve". Read more about that in my weekly obsession. Side note: I am currently playing Super Mario Odyssey and trying to get all the moons so I ended up playing that while I binge-watched the whole first season. I looked at the clock realizing it was almost 3 am and decided to go to sleep even though I could have easily watched some more of the series.

Thursday: By Thursday my sleep schedule was completely messed up. I did a spontaneous trip to a furniture store with my mom just for fun. The weather was amazing and we ended up chilling at a café for a while until she drove me back home. Most importantly about that day was the Avril Lavigne concert though. My sister gifted me tickets to the concert 4 years ago - yes, before the pandemic. Initially it would have taken place a day before my birthday. It was the first concert they cancelled due to the pandemic, so I have been W-A-I-T-I-N-G. I love anticipation, don't get me wrong, but this was a journey. Anyways, there were no specific front-of-stage tickets for the concerts so I wanted to be there super early to be as close to the stage as possible. I arrived 2.5 hours before the doors opened. Long story short: Everything worked out perfectly. We got front-of-stage tickets and were standing in the first row. What a concert. The setlist was amazing we had a perfect view, a great time and the supporting act was - despite my expectations - really good. I made it home after standing for 7 hours straight, but not regretting a single minute.

Friday: I woke up and my whole body was aching. Concerts are workouts if you do them right. I had planned to go play badminton with my parents, so even though it is always super fun, my body was not exactly in the perfect state for sports so my mind wasn't either. We had a great session though and for some reason we all leveled up our game. Super tired already from the whole week, I had also planned to watch a show with a friend of mine so I had to quickly go home, shower, eat and make my way to her place. In the meanwhile my friends had planned to go for drinks to celebrate my job so I dressed up nicely to meet up with them afterwards. Luckily for my body, we ended up cancelling those plans again and I went home after watching Germany's next Topmodel with my friends. Still, with my messed-up sleep schedule I ended up staying up late, watching Killing Eve and playing Super Mario Odyssey.

Saturday: I met up with a friend for brunch in the morning. It was a place I didn't know previously. Not sure if I would go again, but it was nice to get my day started and go out. On Wednesday I had walked home after the study because the weather was amazing and I felt like exploring the city. On the way I had the great idea to switch out my sofa with the one that was at my parents' place, that was also much more comfortable. So, my dad drove over with the other couch and we spent 1.5 hours switching out the sofas. Great decision. However, my little apartment was packed with random things everywhere after the move so there was lots to clean and tidy up. I had plans to celebrate my job on Saturday night but as soon as the sofas were switched and my dad had left my apartment, I sat down on the the sofa and all the tiredness came flushing in. I did not get up for another three hours or so. Eventually, I got hungry and made some pasta with homemade pesto, ending the day by playing Super Mario Odyssey and watching Killing Eve.

Sunday: Finally a chill day? Nope! I had promised two friends of mine to help them move. I saw the opportunity to put in a little workout so I made my way to their place early in the day and put my muscles to use. I was happy to help and also admired that they were confident enough to ask for help and that so many people had shown up to help. Shortly before the promised compensation (pizza) arrived I had to leave though. You guessed it! More plans. I went for lunch with my family at a random place that coincidently is super close to my new work place so I will probably go there again soon. We went to the cinema and watched the Dungeons and Dragons movie, which absolutely exceeded my expectations and was a really pleasant film and perfect for the occasion. Spontaneously, my sister and brother in law invited me to play video games - and beat them at every single one - at their place and so I spent the rest of the night there. Going home I missed the subway by a literal 30 seconds. I ended up walking home. The walk home is a little bit dodgy, still I arrived safely and the little midnight walk was actually really refreshing.

And that was my week. Full of news and events and spontaneous things. Even though I was exhausted by the end and even writing about it is exhausting I wouldn't change a single thing.