Blogs

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“The interview” 03/10/07

October 2nd was my interview date! I arranged my journey down to clipper and a hotel in Portsmouth to stay at. I didn’t really know what to expect and how formal it was going to be. I knew that they were a friendly bunch at Clipper Ventures just from chatting to them on the phone!

That night I relaxed with a glass on wine thinking over in my head what was I going to say? I had answers to why do you want to do this? What most scares you about the challenge? How do you think you will raise the funds? M strengths? My weakness?

Suddenly I became acutely aware that I had thought about this yacht race over and over in my head for 6 months at least already and I was afraid I was going to appear complacent. I was awake so much of the night worried that I was not going to appear excited or enthusiastic about taking part in the race.

Next morning I made my way to clipper ventures in Gosport. I was last to arrive despite being ever so cool in arriving half an hour early. Straight away I set to making tea for everyone as we had a casual chat in the kitchen of the clipper office. It was nice to meet David and put a face to the name. He then started to talk to us about how he came about to be working for clipper, following completing a circumnavigation with them a few years previously. We saw videos, and talked about fundraising and sponsorship.

Then it was time for the interview, whilst people had theirs it gave us all time to chat amongst one another about how about we came to be sat in this room. I was completely shocked and surprised to be sat next to a 14-year-old lad who was planning on doing it in 4 years time. To me this summed up the whole thing. This was going to be big, and it was going to take over my life and potentially change my life beyond even realization.

My interview with David was good, and my previous anxieties about appearing complacent certainly were not an issue. To me it felt like I had a case of verbal diarrhea as I gabbled away about why I was going to do it. For me what I wanted to know from David was that I was not completely mad in even contemplating undertaking this challenge. His answer was “well Lois, you are but that’s the kind of person we want”. Satisfaction, complete and utter satisfaction. I confessed to David that I have never been in rough sea and the thought of it did scare me, and that I was unsure that I was brave enough to take on this element. He assured me that this was a normal feeling, deep down I know that I can get through that fear and that it excites me more than scares me.

I left the clipper office smiling away, a reaction I find myself doing pretty much 100% of the time these days, because the yacht race is always on my mind. I asked a chap on my way out of the marina which way it was back to the train station, he kindly showed me the way. I couldn’t help but tell him about what I was planning on doing, he thought it was amazing and wished he could do something like it one day. I gave him the business card David had just previously given me and said to him he should contact clipper. He declined and said it was something he could never afford to do or give up the time towards doing. I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated, but as I am aware now it was a reaction I was to become more familiar with over time.