The Sky Looked Like the Sea, and the Good News Came Suddenly

I took a few photographs of the sky during military training today.

The blue above the field was unusually clean. The wind had stretched the clouds into long, thin shapes, and some looked like feathers. Training was still training, but looking up for a moment made something inside me loosen.

A school track and football field beneath a clear blue sky, with trees lit by the sun — A quick photograph during training. The blue was especially clear today.

Thin white clouds spreading like light feathers across a deep blue sky — Some of the clouds looked like feathers, or waves being pulled apart by the wind.

The sky and the sea always have this healing effect. They do not solve whatever is in front of me, but they make it feel smaller for a while. I may be standing on a field, following the day's arrangements, and still be able to look up at something far away.

No Second Interview, Apparently

Then came today's good news.

After several days of going from one interview to another, I received a message saying that the sports department thought I would be better suited to a science and innovation group. They had recommended me, and I could simply go there the next day.

I assumed that a second interview would follow. Then another message arrived: I did not need to attend it. I had already been selected, and I could rest tonight.

That was rather sudden. Yesterday, I was still wondering whether being too blunt had cost me an interview. Today, a result reached me from another direction. Life is occasionally very good at ignoring the route I had predicted for it.

“Lucky,” was honestly my first reaction. Perhaps someone happened to think I was suitable, happened to be willing to recommend me, and there happened to be a place ready to receive me.

I do not need to work out tonight exactly how much of that was luck. The result is here, and the happiness is real. I can accept both for now.

I went back to the library in the evening and took a selfie. I look reasonably awake in the photograph. In reality, my mind was still switching between Python, Chinese and English input modes, and the thought that I had somehow got in.

A selfie in the library under ceiling lights, wearing black-framed glasses and a white sports shirt — An evening selfie in the library, with light adjustments to skin tone, temporary blemishes, and the indoor lighting.

Today brought a blue sky, clouds that looked a little like waves, and a piece of good news I had not expected.

That is enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will go and see what the science and innovation group that took me in is actually like.