To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Ashleige Tara. I am 23 years old, a Singaporean Chinese woman. I write with sincere interest streaked with hints of desperation this letter in the hopes to securing some kind of a position in your organization or just really, in the industry of print media/literary/journalism in general. Time spent finishing this letter and an afterthought reply will not only be greatly appreciated but will also be remembered for life.

All my life, I have been romantically devoted to writing, and over the years have cultivated an almost illicit affair with the written word. It was the bottom line of it all. It is how I survived anything at all. I have to believe that writing was what I am born to do and a direction in which my life should depend on to steer and how I would go out at the end. I was never the kid to pass science or math but always the one so caught up with a composition piece, school assignments or leisure. I would be frantically scribbling lines and lines of emotions, and relationships and life on the blank paper. Time was never enough. It was never quick enough to match up the way my brain would spew and weave stories, fiction and otherwise. Fictitious characters in my head especially would not rest with their sometimes heated conversations and emotional confrontations until I set them on paper. I would be so obsessed with them I could do nothing else. It is the special place that everyone disappears to whenever they are creating or just indulging themselves in their favorite pastimes.

Writing naturally became an effortless routine, an outlet I would lock myself in regularly and I want to make it my career, a profession, a craft in which feeds my enthusiasm in learning and completing me as a whole person and a contribution to the society, this world. I could curb that fire no more; a second personality who has laid dormant for years and years and would jump on any opportunities for a breath of fresh air and freedom and eventual dominance. It would be more than just a career for me; it would be what my life constitutes of and would accumulate to be. That said, I am however not schizophrenic, in the clinical sense of the word anyway. I have on pretty sturdy authority that most people, artistic and the in betweens becomes a different, more together and stronger person whenever they are creating or working on something.

I was an Express student, who passed the O Levels with 2 credits, namely my Mother Tongue, Mandarin and English and who eventually graduated as an Arts student. I later pursued and attained a Higher NITEC certificate in Business Administration with a typing speed of 75wpm and an aggregate point of 3.3 over 4. After that I was admitted to Temasek Polytechnic (evidently wanting to be enrolled in Mass Communication but) and I had unofficially graduated in February with a Diploma in Culinary and Catering Management under the Business School. It was an extremely grueling 3 years of my life, to say the least, for my interest was never for the hospitality/food & beverage industry. It remained very much on writing and creating. I just happened to be on that ride towards the sudden and phenomenal outburst of energy and activities in that industry, the Integrated Resorts and many more.

I was not entitled the autonomy of choices that an O Levels student would have had because I was an ITE student. And when I was offered only 4 choices out of the plenty, being the free spirit that I was and still am, I took the course that somehow provided substantial novelty. Who would have imagined that I would end up in a kitchen as a chef, and possibly in that soon-to-open Resort World Sentosa? During that duration I have contemplated switching courses more times than I could have remembered and 3 years later, I continue hitting myself over the head for making such a poor choice but it was one derived of desperate need for a poly education.

Today I sit in front of my computer, typing in the dark with a strangely empowering motivation driving my fingers and brain. I figured it is high time I live my life the way I wanted it led. No more wasting of time and with a plastered patronizing fake smile on my face behind some counter or in the kitchen. No more lying about my true feelings and motives. No more thinking about the could-have-beens but instead act on it. I have to show the world who I really am. I understand that I am hardly equipped or even properly educated with paper qualifications, finesse and mechanisms needed in the print media industry but I believe that I had it in me, that I had to harness it, however way I can, to do it justice. I am not a learned writer but I want to learn everything about writing and in the industry and people so, so badly. I am simply naturally made this way, to write, like it was my destiny, my only meaning. It may sound like exaggerated BS but this is truly what I feel. For the many years I locked that second personality away for realistic and conventional reasons, I had every intention to release it. And today, via this letter, I am unlocking my true self.

Through this letter, I am also looking for hope, a meaning, and a means in this industry that are diminishing at an astonishing speed. I am hoping to find the bundle of true significance and hope in writing and humanity before it completely vanished. I am interested in any positions, even as an underpaid intern who starts from scratch and buys coffee for everyone, as long as it fits and support my interest in joining the industry which is to write and edit and write some more and get it printed or published. I could only express this much how I really want to be part of this profession. I started my first fiction at 17 and creating has been an ongoing process. In fact, I have been straying so much from that first fiction that I have come to explore other interests such as psychology and lesbianism. Least to say, I have also hopped on with enthusiasm the wagon of blogging. It was possibly one of the greatest inventions after written languages and the spoken word. It is such an amazing platform and when utilized the smart way, lucrative. However it had simply remained for me as a platform to play out the innate ability to constructing thoughtful and thought-provoking entries.

Academically, I have only taken a brief module on Creative Writing, a cross-disciplinary module tutored by Felix C, a local established and published poet. I learnt largely about construction and character-building and relating life to my assignments, tips to building climaxes and cliffhangers and ending the story with realistic conviction. I have also written argumentative articles supporting and debating various topics such as globalization, the pros and cons of expatriates and the effects of Internet and more for the University of Southern Australia. It was actually favor for a friend who was doing a part time course in Business with the institution but I was more than willing to help. She has received rather commendable reviews and grades for those papers.

I thank you for your time and I really hope to hear from you, even if you start the letter ‘with much regrets’. I know it is about working fast and quick and creatively in a very fast-paced and stressful environment. The job is demanding, by any standards, with infinite deadlines to meet, readers to please, and so on and so forth. It is all about dynamic and teamwork. It is really not that different from the various restaurants and kitchens I have worked in. I am prepared to go the extra mile to pick up the slack and I am highly disciplined and so easy to work with. I am a pro-active and motivated individual looking to expand my horizons and as an organization that is innovative and dynamic should cherish talents and capabilities when you see it. And I do mean it when I said consider me for whatever positions. I will even do Marketing since I have at least 6 years experiences, in theories on paper anyway.

It would be my greatest pleasure to show you some of my work, stories and poetry and whatever. I am currently collating work that I have done, putting together a portfolio that would spark an interest in you. Alternatively, you can check out my blog at http://www.iamyouknowwhatyours.blogspot.com/. For the most part of it, it is constituted of senseless babbling but still, everything came from the heart. And please, do leave a comment. Please contact me via email at tarashley@gmail.com or call me at my mobile at 9680 7112.

Once again, I thank you for your interest and time.

Yours sincerely,
Ashleige Tara

Ok, I am going to pay for this dearly tomorrow morning, at work. I am officially only left with a rough 5 hours of sleep, that is if I even sleep. The above is an appeal to the literary/journalism industry to take me in. I am like a mangy stray who needed a home and this letter that I am going to send yelled just that. As soon as I could find email addresses of related organizations, I would mass send it. Hopefully it will get me legitimate attention and employed. Fingers crossed.