Track 33: "The Waiting" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Just as a song came to me that perfectly captured my feelings of finishing up school at The Creative Circus (see track 32), I found the perfect tune for the post-graduate feelings of "what the hell do I do now?"

The job hunt is on! It's as exciting as it is uncertain. I am dying to get started on my career...and also sweating it. Severely. With each day the finite amount of money in my checking account takes another hit and the looming feeling that I have to get a job--any job--is constantly on my mind. I'm not against working some part-time gig to help make ends meet, I'm just over it. I've done all those jobs before, it's a big reason why I decided to go back to school, and now that I'm done and KNOW exactly what I want to do--I only want to do that!

I love Tom Petty, much for the same reasons I like CCR, it's just music that's perfectly simple and simply perfect. Petty is another favorite song-writer whose catalog of music is just amazing. So many stellar songs, but "The Waiting" has always been a favorite.

"The waiting is the hardest part," perfectly sums up what I am going through right now. Sending out feelers, making contacts, hoping that some creative director out there at some great shop sees my stuff and thinks I'd be a great fit. It's been an intense two years, and I'm proud of the portfolio I made and now I am just waiting on my career to begin.

There's a snippet of "The Waiting," with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder singing the lead vocals on the Tom Petty documentary "Running Down a Dream." And I was glad to have found the whole track on You Tube. The documentary is truly fantastic and a must-see. And Vedder just sings the ever-loving shit out of this tune.