So, I got fired for the first time in my life today, from the first internship I've had in my life and that basically capped one of the worse weekends I've had in recent memory but somehow I'm still upbeat.
Let's set the scene...
I left First Horizon Park on Thursday around 11:30 PM, I was walking home to time how long it took (and I think the GTA stops running at 11:30) anyway, I make it to my apartment around 12:10 and I don't have my keys (which have been gone for about a week now). No ones home. I find out one of my roommates is in Charlotte and the other one is nowhere to be found. I'm waiting around for 2-3 hours in the hallway of my building, on the phone with my friend at Arizona State for most of it...
3 a.m. I realize that he's not coming home (I guess 28 calls that go to voicemail means he's busy) and the few calls I made to people that live close to me went unanswered. I think to myself, where can I stretch out for a few hours before I go to work? I decide to head over to NCB to the newspaper office, I cut through Crosby (which is always unlocked for some reason) and head upstairs. I get there, it's locked...I see the Dance Studio lounge is open so I go and sit on the couch, set my BlackBerry alarm to 6: a.m. so I can be up, waiting for the janitor to let me in the office, as you can imagine, that didn't happen.
Around 4 a.m., I get tapped and two white police officers are standing over me (Not that it's a race thing but two white officers at A&T threw me off) and he says "What are you doing in my building?" I'm like what? He repeats...and I explain that I'm a writer and I lost my keys, I think they were in the office so I was waiting there until one of the janitor's came so I could get in and find them.
Even I'll admit that isn't exactly believable coming from a big black dude with a terrorist beard a bookbag and works clothes on. So, I show the officers my State of North Carolina ID, Social Security Card and A&T ID. They still don't believe me. I explain that my office is right next door and my name is on the window...TWICE and they still don't buy it. I pull out a current issue of The A&T Register (on news stands right now!) and show them the staff box with my name in it, a photo credit with my name on it, and two stories I wrote last week. He still gets on the horn to verify if I'm actually a student. After they get the "YEAH, HE GOES HERE" call on the radio, we get a janitor to come over and let me in the office. One officers asks about my Hoppin' Fun Grasshoppers polo and I explain that I work for them. He asks about a game and I tell them how we won on a bunt that night and then convince him to bring the family out to a game to see the Fireworks! Dirty work clothes, looking homeless and all, still made the sell.
We walk in the newsroom and I do the usual, lay my bookbag on the archives, turn off the dark room light (why is that joint always on?) and then I go to the back room to look for my keys. I'm not finding them and officer smart ass hits me with "It seems like if you worked here, you'd know where your keys were." I ignore him like, "Some one cleans up in here like every other week and you would never tell." Then they start looking around the office, touching books, looking at stuff on the walls. I still can't find my keys (I know in the back of my head that they aren't in there). They give up too and say, "Well you are who you say you are, don't make a habit of doing this." Then goes to make moves but not before he asks about our broken camera and says "If you're ever giving it away, remember Officer (whatever his name was)"
They leave and the janitor comes back, I'm trying to forget the whole situation and working on InDesign to try and get ahead on next week's paper but this dude wants to talk about Charlotte and anybody who knows about Charlotte knows I can talk about my hometown all day, but I'm watching the clock so I can leave for work early because this whole situation was too unbelievable to tell over the phone.
I make to work so early, that everything is locked. I call my direct boss, Amanda, she's shocked that I'm not on time but early, I get in and explain what happened to Tim and Amanda, they are like shocked but to my surprise I don't get sent home to take a shower and maybe change clothes, they put me at the front to handle visitors and the phone until the rest of the staff (who are working half days) gets in at 12:30. So looking like I haven't taken a shower, nappy beard, mustard stain on my polo, they put me at the front of the office to greet people who come in and then direct calls to the right people when I probably shouldn't have been at work at all.
The day in the office goes pretty well, I work on the a story for the Hoppers, get a little bit of the newsletter done (even though they should really consider dropping Constant Contact, it sucks!) come game time, I'm dead tired. They ask me to go set up for a player autograph session and that's when things began to go bad.
The autograph session was supposed to go from 6:00-6:40. We had one or two people come over at first so in the mean time me and the player, Rodolfo Encarnicion talked about Greensboro and things outside this country, it was a really good conversation for someone who isn't great in the language. Around 6:15 I got up and started directing everyone that came through the gate to go check him out but nobody really came over there until 6:30. When 6:40 comes, he finally has a line and I'm not gonna be the one to pull him away, I'm sure players dream of having a line of kids wanting his autograph, I let it ride until 6:50 then I run upstairs to do to scoreboard for the game because first pitch was at 7:00.
As soon as I got to the press box, I asked Amanda who was going to go get him from down there, I guess she didn't hear me. Three innings pass (like an hour and a half) and I look down and he's still there talking to little girls and I turn around and tell my boss, "Umm, he's still down there!"and her boss happens to be in the room and she freaks, then flips on both of us saying "Mike, he was supposed to leave with you at 6:40" and leaves. Definitely a huge strike one.
So while I'm trying to get that out my mind, I mess up the scoreboard (wrong count 2-3 times), the rest of the game my mind is wandering, I'm staring right at the plate and seeing the balls go over the plate but it isn't transferring to my head to hit the button, so I'm asking "What's the count" like every five minutes. Fatigue had definitely set in. After the game is over (Hoppers won, that's 4 in a row) and i do my interviews, get ready to leave, I get up with my boy who is an unpaid intern and I tell him what happened.
Tim comes to ask me what the hell happened, he went to A&T so I thought it would be a don't let this shit happen again kind of thing, which it was, but he tore me a new about how I've ruined the relationship between the team and the media and that shit can't happen again or from now on it's going to be difficult to get them to let a player go do autographs again and I'm like alright, because I realize that at this point I'm not messing up the Grasshoppers I'm messing up the Florida Marlins organization. I ask again, what time do I need to be at the ballpark and no one gives me a definite answer, I go help the other interns fold up the inflatable jersey and tell my boy about how I went from their favorite to their least favorite in one day.
He said, "Don't worry, you got all summer to fix that." I guess he was wrong.
I finally get to go home around 11 p.m., sleep in my own bed for the first time in 2 days, mind you I've worked from 8:30 am until 11 in my same clothes, no shower, already stressed and I didn't once make that an excuse all day long.
Today, I get up at and come to the ballpark at 3 p.m. because the game starts at 5 p.m., I notice that everyone in the office isn't exactly jumping to speak to me because they've been chewed out by the organizations, coaches, their bosses, the trickle down effect finally got to me and that's when Katie and Amanda wanted to speak to me but not before Amanda asks me "Where I've been" and I say "At home, waiting to come here." She says, "You didn't think we needed help around here at 10?"
"It's not a good fit."
Crazy right? Basically, I hear the reasons why this has to happen, including "I've burned bridges," "Not met expectations," and "I haven't hustled like they thought I would." All of which I could dispute but I realize that nothing I say at the time changes the fact that they don't want me there anymore." I'm smiling while they're telling me this, none of them are looking me in the eye. Finally they asked why I'm smiling and I say, "It's like I'm laughing not to cry." Then explain that I don't feel like I've had an opportunity to be used to my best abilities. After that, they try to say I'm so busy with other things, which I don't let happen. I gave up a radio show, gave them my open Fridays and stopped shooting a podcast just to be there for them during the week, I don't say that part but I do battle back that I planned one making them my life very soon, we have one more newspaper coming out and classes end in like 2 weeks, I didn't get a chance to get and be a valuable member of the Grasshoppers team.
Amanda picks up, "you don't seem happy here" and then explains that I come across with an attitude that "I'm doing them a favor by being here and not appreciating the opportunity" and say. I replied that I've learned a lot there already. Long story short they say "We just want to end it now because it wouldn't be a good summer for you."
Katie adds, "You don't seem like you want to do minor league baseball the rest of your life" and I'm thinking, who does? But I answer, I don't really know what I want to do anymore but I do know that minor league baseball gives you an opportunity to move up in the organization if they see you doing well." Katie's ready to go and hits me with a "Let's just move on, no hard feelings." They ask for my credential back and then I ask them do they want the polo back too. "Nah you can keep that." Like I'm really dying to have 4 Hoppin' Fun polos in my closet.
They get my home address, one last handshake and I'm out not before Amanda said "Maybe, we'll see you at a game or two this year." Yunhui, the team store lady asks me where I'm going and I say home and she's like "Right now?" and I'm like "Yep, just got that pink slip, see you later."
For some reason, as I was leaving the park I was still smiling, I wasn't fighting back the emotion or excited but I was surprisingly upbeat.
At the end I started thinking about all the little things. I really should have just went home Friday, took a shower and got my mind right. Was it the way all the black people in the stadium tended to gravitate towards me (not AT but the CenterPlate people) or was it because I asked what they were doing about Jackie Robinson Day? Was it because I really didn't work hard? That definitely wasn't it. Was it my jokes about trading a player something for a team jacket (I always tell jokes with a straight face). They mentioned that I didn't smile but who is anti-depressant happy at work everyday? Was it because my jeans were ripped up on casual Friday? And a number of things that could have rubbed people the wrong way.
Either way, on the walk home I kicked the ideas of what my next move would be. TV? Radio? Going to Charlotte this weekend? The asshole in me wanted to get a job with Show Pros or CenterPlate so they would have to see me at the stadium everyday, but that would accomplish nothing and after seeing some of the people that applied yesterday, I'm a little overqualified for stadium concessions (been there, done that).
It would have been ten times more convenient if they told me two weeks ago, then I still had the chance of getting on with ESPN, BET or some other Greensboro companies but hey, that's how it works. Everybody is trying to make it a race thing when the people I worked with weren't racist. I will say that I felt like I was looking over my shoulder at all times, I was very conscious that my effort had to be double that of every other intern and that I was constantly under a microscope not only representing A&T, but Black people and maybe that was wrong on my part but every person of color knows that they need to be on top of everything at all times. I was constantly thinking about everything I said, consciously calculating what how things I said would be taken and maybe this was the Lord's way of telling me that it wasn't healthy for me to add undue stress to an already stressful situation.
Who knew one bad day could lead to this? Sorry, no Grasshopper hookups or discounts on tickets, t-shirts, hats, etc. but hey "It just wasn't a good fit."
Shouts out to AT, Tim, Brian and Amanda (pre-firing me) they were always cool to me and helped when I was lost! Do your thing out there Yonas, I hope you're the one who replaces me this summer (Grasshopper colored J's, they gotta love that).
Over 2500 words and no pictures! I know but hey, I had to tell the story. Hit me up if you have any ideas on what I should do with my life this summer!
Be Easy.
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