The Madonna of Bolton by Matt Cain

Author:Matt Cain [Cain, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783526208
Publisher: Unbound
Published: 2018-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Part Three

Causing a Commotion

It isn’t until months and months after graduation that I’m finally on my way to my first day’s work. As I stride along to my new office, I try to will myself into feeling confident. I really want to make a good impression, not least because it took me so long to find this job.

After leaving Cambridge I slunk off home to Bolton and straight away began looking for employment. I wrote to every theatre in Britain but didn’t secure a single meeting. Trying not to be too disheartened, I wrote to them all again offering my services for free but still no one was interested. The steady trickle of rejection chipped away at my self-confidence and there were days when I thought it had damaged my soul.

I took to spending hours on end lying on my bed listening to Madonna, trying to convince myself that I was good enough to be employed and I would find a job. It didn’t help that Shanaz had gone straight into her training to be a doctor so didn’t really understand what I was going through and nor did anyone in my family, who’ve always seemed suspicious of a career I think they imagine will take me further away from them. I began to think my time in Cambridge might have been a brief bright spot in what was otherwise going to be a dull, unexciting life.

Just when my morale was at its lowest I spotted an advert for a job as a trainee researcher on a cable TV channel specializing in ‘adult entertainment’. By this point my finances were becoming a serious problem and I had to consider any option that would allow me to start paying off my debts. So I sent off my application, went for an interview and somehow got the job.

At the moment, anarchy’s in fashion on TV and series like The Big Breakfast and Eurotrash are hugely popular. The show I’ll be working on is a magazine series called The Third Nipple and is billed as a ‘wacky weekly round-up of the wild and the weird’. Professor Potts certainly didn’t mention anything like that in his speech after our graduation ceremony. I look at my bracelet engraved with the lyrics to ‘Ray of Light’ and wonder whether a more appropriate choice might have been ‘Causing a Commotion’.

I decide to put on a brave face and remind myself that Madonna was forced to slave her way through a series of dead-end jobs before eventually achieving her ambitions. Didn’t she work as a cloakroom attendant in a nightclub and even a waitress in Dunkin’ Donuts at one point? Well, in the long run it obviously didn’t do her any harm. In fact, I’m sure she’s spoken in interviews about some of these experiences making her stronger. I feel reassured and decide to face the challenge before me head-on.

The good news is that my new job’s based in London so I didn’t waste any time in moving

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.