Help! I Need Sleep!! – by Cara Potapshyn Meyers

I probably made one of the greatest faux pax of my entire life this past week. I slept through what would be equivalent to an extremely important job interview. I ended up getting to the interview late. The interviewer clearly stated to me, “I am unfortunately going to have to hold this (incident) against you.” I wished the floor had just opened up and swallowed me right up at that point. I did acknowledge that I understood and I calmly completed the interview. I didn’t make up any excuses to this gentleman. I explained that my son took my cell phone, (which is also my alarm), into his room to play with and left it under the covers. I also told this gentleman that I was terribly disappointed in myself, as I knew he must also have been. I also sincerely apologized. I said everything I could think of to appear honest and forthright.

So why, exactly did I sleep through such an important interview? Let me explain.

The night before, it had been pouring rain. My ADHD son was hyper focusing on something and nothing would draw his attention away. I used every tactic I could think of to get him to abandon what he was working on and finally fall asleep. He did…at…11:30 pm. I was in bed, lights out a few minutes before midnight. 

A while later, I was awoken by the sound of thunder and pounding rain. It woke my dog up also. He decided he had to go outside to relieve himself. It was now approximately 1:30 am. I put on my rain gear and went out onto the back porch to take my dog out and he stopped dead in his tracks. He hates getting wet. He briskly turned around and sauntered back into the house. I sighed and figured if he continued to hear the unrelenting rainfall, he would fall back to sleep. No such luck. He had to relieve himself VERY badly and kept waking me up at 2:15 am, 3:30 am. Finally around 4:00 am, the rain let up enough for him to quickly go and come back in. Thank goodness.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, my alarm went off at 4:30 am. Time to take my synthroid. Had my head been less foggy, I would have taken my medicine at 4 am, right after taking out the dog. I was a walking zombie. I DID have enough sense to reset my clock for 9 am, knowing my husband would get my son ready for school and take him there. This way, I was hoping I could get a few hours of solid sleep in. I was also premenstrual which always makes me crave more sleep.

At 6:30 am, my ADHD son came bounding into my room, jumping on my bed to wake me up. He wanted to find something on the computer. It was way too early to give him his ADHD medication. I pleaded, begged and practically bribed him to let me sleep longer. Again, no such luck. My only request of him was that I get some coffee before we went onto the computer. At least he obliged to that. Between the caffeine, getting my son breakfast, continuing to find what it was he wanted on the computer, and constantly reminding him to get dressed, brush his teeth, etc. it soon was 8:30 am. My son wanted to get to school a little early, so my husband took my son to school shortly after 8:30 am.

My interview wasn’t until 11:30 am. I had reset my phone alarm for 10:00 am when my son woke me up, knowing I could get at least an hour+ more sleep once my son went to school and still be nicely dressed and arrive on time for my interview. 

Eleven-twenty-five am. I woke up with a start. I glanced at where my phone should have been. It wasn’t there. I frantically glanced at the other two clocks in my room. They both read 11:25 am. I ran out of my room to look at the clock on the cable box, knowing it would have the exact time and hoping we had lost power at some point and that all of the other clocks were off. The cable box registered 11:26 am. At that moment I heard a faint, “beep, beep, beep,” coming from my son’s room. I ran into his room and threw open his covers and found my beeping cell phone in the middle of his bed. Evidentially, while I was zombied out, searching on the computer, he must have gone into my room, taken my phone, and when I called him to tell him that I found what he was looking for, he abandoned my phone on his bed. I knew I had reset my alarm earlier, so I hadn’t bothered to check to see whether my phone was on my nightstand or not.

I was like a deer stuck in headlights for a few moments with screams of “No! No! No!” echoing in my brain! What was I to do? I immediately called the interviewer and got his voicemail. Since I sounded like I had just awoken, I didn’t want to lie. I calmly explained that I had overslept but that I would be out the door and to his office in a few moments. I found some respectable looking clothes and threw them on, put my hair up in clips, brushed my teeth and flew out the door. No shower, no make-up, nothing.

As I was racing to the office, the interviewer called me on my cell phone. I told him that I was already en route and should be at his office shortly. As I sped to the office, I tried to think of all of the reasons I could give for my horrendous offense. I decided that this interviewer would not be interested in my “night from hell” nor any other reason. I resolved that I would walk into his office, like a mature adult, and tell the interviewer that I was exceedingly sorry, that I was even more disappointed in myself than he probably was and that if he was interested in what had transpired to cause me to oversleep, I would be glad to explain, but that if he felt it unnecessary, I completely understood. I did exactly this. It was then that he uttered the dreaded sentence, “I am going to have to hold this against you.”

If this interview had been a typical, albeit, highly important job interview, I would have completed my interview, left, and said to myself, “Maybe this was just not meant to be.” Unfortunately, this interview is one of several that will be determining the outcome of my entire future. Every single aspect of my future. Not just simply a job.

I have been wracking my brain trying to understand how this will affect my outcome. Will my honesty and mature forthrightness override a comment that did not impress the interviewer? Did he want to see if he could get a “raw” reaction out of me, such as a sudden, explosive comeback when he told me he would have to hold this incident against me? Will the other interviews I already had with him be convincing enough for this gentleman to realize that everyone is human and that overall I am a pretty decent person? I am trying to remain positive. I hope my positiveness is strong enough to give me an edge in determining my fate. 

I fully plan to disclose my story to my son, once he is old enough to completely comprehend the situation and the fact that as hard as it might be, it never pays to lie and be deceitful to someone else. You need to take responsibility for your own actions, good or bad, and face the consequences. Lying and cheating never help solve a situation. It simply manifests itself into more lies and further deceit. If my fate turns out favorably, my son will be able to continue to observe, first hand, morality, decency, and positive values first hand. My greatest hope is that the powers that be recognize this and that I will have a chance to have my son continue to grow and understand that decency is the cornerstone to outstanding character. If only the interviewer understood this.

Tags: honesty, interview, maturity, morality, oversleeping, son, values