Lunch Hour

After the initial flurry of excitement about being offered a job, Madeline began to think over her preliminary decision to take the job. She talked to her mom about it, who suggested that she write a list of pros and cons about taking the job. “And Maddie,” Mom said, “remember that you don’t have to take your first job offer. You just finished graduate school and you’ve still got a full-time job to fall back on. If you want to wait for a better job to come along or something more inline with what you want to do in the long run, your father and I will support you.”

“I think I’m going to make the pros and cons list tonight. It’s just hard to figure out what to do. And I don’t know if someone else is going to want to hire me – I’ve sent out over fifty applications and most of what I get back has been rejection letters.”

“Well, just remember that you have been offered a job. That’s not a rejection letter!” her mother said, trying to be upbeat about Madeline’s situation.

“Okay,” Madeline said, “I’ll try to remember that. I’m almost ready to move home tomorrow. I’ll be packing up my car tonight and driving home after work. I should be back in Cedar Grove by six o’clock this evening.”

She ended the conversation quickly and brought out a piece of paper. Madeline drew a line quickly down the middle and wrote at the top “Taking the Job in Baltimore – Pros and Cons.”

She chewed on the top of her pen thoughtfully before slowing starting to write down on the paper: