Alexandra Early
Too High up in the Hills
Privileged Paradise City, Hot Dry State Attached to Mexico
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to apply to this position I saw posted on craisglist/idealist/change.com/the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network because I want to help. There may be twenty or thirty other people in this city, in this great Bay Area, that are just as qualified as me, probably even more. For your after-school coordinator position they may be perfect because they’ve taught in an urban elementary school for five years and were laid off because of budget cuts. Or for your booking coordinator position they might be a great fit because they were the event coordinator at a first class arts center in Texas before the golden gated city beckoned. But I am uniquely qualified because I want to work and I am two years out of a tiny liberal arts college and I want to contribute and because I am desperate. Maybe just as desperate as those twenty or thirty other people but I am not afraid of showing my desperation and disgusting eagerness to contribute. I will not hide it behind a pants suit and make up and smart answers to your interview questions. I will let you see it in my eyes if you cannot see it here. It is a desperate need to be lending a helping hand, doing the right thing, giving other people some good because I have had so much of it in my life.
I am a white girl from a middle class family committed to social justice but also to good food and some pretty nice vacations. I can tell you all about my “comfort working with diverse groups” but that’s what I am. I only had two black friends growing up, one was a fellow girl scout but I was always a little afraid of her because she picked on me and her siblings all had different fathers. The other friends’ parents were Ethiopian and her house with its wall-to-wall maroon carpeting was always filled with exotic wonderful smells. But she never ate Ethiopian food or spoke her parents’ language in front of her friends. Our after school snacks were Oreo cookies and milk, so it wasn’t a culturally challenging resume-worthy relationship.
I grew up with all the opportunities the kids in your after school program/youth workshops do not have. Summer trips to Europe, private French and piano lessons, soccer and basketball leagues, a big house with a room of my own where I could study and read and dream of being a child actress on Full House or a modern day Harriet Tubman. What skills did I learn from the challenges of my youth? I learned to turn in homework on time. I learned to do sit-ups everyday and be scared to death of ice cream and cake, because Seventeen Magazine taught me real women are either skinny or big breasted. I learned not to talk about the dark things I saw in the world around me. Read about them, notice them, go on service-learning trips and experience them but don’t be a self-righteous blabbermouth, it only makes people uncomfortable.
I am perfect fit for this part-time job in Oakland/San Francisco/Richmond/Daly City because of my experience working with a solidarity group that educated people about terrible things happening in El Salvador and as an organizer in a union fighting for democracy against great odds. I am all fired up and fucked up and furious from these experiences but also extremely well prepared for all the duties of being a housing counselor/drop-in recreation coordinator/program assistant/administrative assistant/ESL assistant teacher.
In addition, my experience working with migrants in the Arizona desert will be a great asset to your organization. I think being your valued office coordinator will loosen a little of the tightness I feel in my throat when I think about the shrine in the dessert to a 14 year old Salvadoran girl who died with her bare feet in a frozen puddle only a days walk from Tucson, or when I imagine the sad smile of Maria Guadalupe, who was at border trying to get back to her job as a maid in New York. She once told me a happy story about her ex-husband. He was a taxi driver and one night he brought home five Central American immigrants and let them stay till they could get money from their families to continue their trip to los Estados. She said they were so nice and they cooked and cleaned (even though they were men), and she would like to do something like that to help other migrants. But she is divorced now and you knew from looking at her she could tell many stories about her marriage that were not so nice and that was why she was there at the border, poor and ready to risk her life again to get back across.
I know this cover letter is longer than recommended. I understand that who ever reads the emails sent to Whom it May Concern at jobs@nonprofit.org usually spends less than a minute reading these cover letters, even if they are painstakingly written abridged life stories. But let me reiterate that I will work hard to support the vital work of your organization and be able to feel in some way like I am helping Maria Guadalupe, migrant from Sonora, Hector Giraldo, trade unionist from Colombia, Jose, line cook from the Yucatan, Brenda, nursing home cook of San Francisco, and the others whose names I forget but whose faces I can see always.
The Mexican migrants I met at the resource center in Sonora said that Mexicans will do jobs that gringos wont do and do them better because their families and their lives depend on it. You must believe that I too can work hard and long because the survival of my heart depends on it. I can organize, recruit, reach out and utilize my excellent verbal and written communication skills. I can work independently or with a team, on a Mac or a PC, whatever you need. I do not know everything yet, maybe not as much as some of the other applicants, but I will try and try and I will be so grateful to be given a chance.
I hope you will consider me for this position at your nonprofit cafe/after school program/dog walking service/health clinic/library. I will be checking my email and phone several times a day to see if you have contacted me about your important work and this considerably less important position. I would really appreciate some response from your overwhelmed organization, a simple recognition of my existence, even if it’s just a rejection letter
Thank you so much for your consideration and time, especially if you read this and my rather long but probably unimpressive resume in full.
Respectfully Yours,
Alexandra Early
