last three years as a grace period to recharge my batteries, but instead I was about to hit rock bottom. Going through the motions of job hunting in earnest had thoroughly exhausted me. Thus, it was probably good that I received the call when I did. I waited dutifully until the third ring and then picked up. Dzƒ„ƒ–ƒƒ‡†‡‘ˆ‹˜‡”•‹–›•’‡ƒ‹‰Ǥ‡•ǡ‘Š‘ǡ–Šƒ›‘—•‘ much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with me. Yes. Of course. Oh, thank you very much! Yes, I understand. Yes. ThankȄoh, yes, thank you so much. Yes, well then, mm-hmm, I will talk to you later. Yes, –Šƒ›‘—˜‡”›—…ŠǤ ‘‘†„›‡ˆ‘”‘™Ǥdz I hung up the phone, suddenly noticing that I had at some point started kneeling seiza-style. All of the tension then flooded from my body, and I fell back onto the floor. There was no point in me even worrying about wrinkles anymore. The call had been from the last company I had spoken with today. The …ƒŽŽǯ•…‘–‡–•ǫDz‡™‘—Ž†„‡ƒ„•‘Ž—–‡Ž›–Š”‹ŽŽ‡†–‘Š‹”‡›‘—ǡƒ„ƒ–ƒ-•ƒǤdz In other words, I was in the home stretch. DzŽŽrightǥdz I looked up at the ceiling just above me, speaking tentative words of triumph, but there was no joy behind those sounds. The problem was not that this company was not my first choice. It was a large corporation and there were no unsavory rumors about it, so I should have been thrilled. I was also relieved not to have to go through the interview process again. However, I was immediately stricken with a feeling of anxiety. In an instant, I had become a full-fledged member of society. I had only spoken any words of joy because I knew that while this decision was only still tentative, this was a joyful thing as far as my position in society. It was just that my emotions did not actually agree. I got it in mind that I might go to sleep right then and there, enjoying the warm May weather, but I realized that there were still some things I needed to do and stood up. I changed into some sweatpants and took out a happoshu from the refrigerator in the kitchen on the other side of the doorway, heading for my computer desk. I tapped away on the keyboard (which was short one Shift key) and logged into my Hotmail account. I had to e-mail the HR departments of all of the companies I was interviewing at, including the one I had just interviewed at today, and let them know that I had accepted an offer and would no longer be continuing the interview process.