Becoming An Adult

I am 18 years old and I am not an adult yet. My world is smaller, my life has been shorter, and frankly, I don't know as much. But today I realized something that demonstrates that I am nearing adulthood. I recently tried out a service (a background checking web-service) that had a free trial period but required that you provided a payment method in case you liked the service. What they didn't tell me, or what I failed to acknowledge, was that at the end of the trial period if I failed to cancel the service I would be billed automatically. I didn't enjoy the service and I didn't really have a need for it so I didn't sign up for an account but I did fail to cancel my account so I was billed. As soon as I received an email confirming that I had sent payment I had a moment of panic. I didn't want to pay for this service. Rather than running to anyone else or accepting that I had to pay for this service I called customer service. After explaining my situation the man at the other end of the line told me that he was authorized to give me a 50% refund and that I would be allowed to continue using this service for the rest of the month. Although this was a better alternative than just paying for the service and canceling payment before getting charged again, I was still not satisfied. So I asked to talk to the man's manager saying that I thought I could give a convincing case as to why I deserved a full refund. He then asked me to tell him my case saying that he would talk to his manager for me because it was against protocol for the managers to get on the line. I told him that since I hadn't used the service and that I was just billed today it didn't seem like it was ridiculous to ask for a full refund. After being put on hold for about five minutes he told me that his manager had authorized a full refund and an account cancellation and that I would have my money back in a few business days. I smiled and thanked the man to which he said the heroic words, "I am just doing my job sir, I am glad I could help," and then I went on my merry way to write this post. I think that this experience is good evidence of my maturation.

My New Job

"Reach for the stars because they don't have arms to reach for you." This quote I heard during a Young Life sketch two summers ago comes to mind as I think about how to tell you about my new job. I was struggling to find a substantial job since I had very little prior experience that could be evaluated by a possible boss. Finally, after much advice and little action I decided to evaluate my skills. As a member of the current generation I am inclined to be proficient at social media and I consider myself to be even more gifted than many of my peers. So I discovered a job with the title "Social Media Consultant" and I contacted someone I knew had just manufactured a need for someone with that title. After a week of showing him what I had to offer, I was hired. And that's how I got my job as a Social Media Consultant at The Green Lawn Group, check them out here.