After introspecting over the reasons I am applying to Lakeland Community College, I would have to say that my main influence was Jane, a young lady that I used to work with here at Joseph McElroy Sr.’s Loan Office, up until about three weeks ago. I never liked her that much, which may come as a shock to you, since I just wrote that she is my main influence for applying to your esteemed Institution. However, in this essay I will describe the story of Jane and how sometimes you can realize your dreams and goals in unexpected places.
In college, she studied Creative Writing, which is how she ended up becoming a receptionist. At work sometimes she would write poems about running through forests, looking for her boyfriend, and sometimes she would print them out and give them to me for my opinions. I gave up trying to read them because they didn’t make sense and some of the sentences ran right off the page. What is poetry if there is no rhyme and rhythm? I would rather read serious literature like War and Peace, which is one of my favorite books because it is full of stimulating characters and once you pick it up it is nearly impossible to put down. But with Jane standing over me, watching me read her poems, I just counted to 20 in my head and turned the page, sometimes 25. Then I handed the pages back to her and said either “intense” or “descriptive,” because that is what I would want to hear if they were my poems.
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“He’ll come with me. There’s always a computer job open no matter where you go,” Jane replied to me. “That sweater is not flattering on you, but I will give you this floral dress, I got it for my sister’s wedding five years ago and haven’t worn it since.”
I had barely been in the office for five minutes with my cocoa still hot before the phone rang and I opened my message pad. It was Sandy, who worked down the hall in Human Resources. “Jane fell down this morning” is what she said, all breathy. “I mean she collapsed. On the sidewalk while we were waiting for the bus. I asked her what she had planned for the weekend and she looked at me funny and just slumped over right onto the concrete.”
Sandy: I think you should close up the office today and go home.
I didn’t feel much of anything until I saw the big box up at the front of the church. I had one of those moments again where I swayed and thought, “I can’t believe I am a person and Jane is a person and Jane is in that box,” but then I saw Louise and I sat in the pew next to her. The priest started the service, and everyone started weeping and looking up at the ceiling like maybe she was floating around there enjoying the ceremony. I felt sorriest for Jane’s boyfriend, who was slumped down by her parents and kept shoving his glasses back up his nose and just keeping his hand there, palm flat on his face, for a few minutes at a time. I started to feel a little flushed in my face and worried about Jane, because I’ve never known anyone so young that died and was someone I knew so much. When you think about it, nobody really knows what will happen after you are dead, except we still all have to do it. And while it always feels normal to put an old grandpa in a box and close it up, it just didn’t seem right to do it to someone who wore rhinestone glasses and just four days ago was huffy about Mr. McElroy taking the whole pot of coffee into the boardroom. Then the dress started to get itchy and I was feeling like I needed to get it off me.
