Marianna "Mare" Hiles

After being rejected from my customer service dream job at Barnes & Noble, I realized that I had some serious work and some serious soul searching to do before I would ever be qualified enough to direct flocks of middle-aged women to the romance section in search of the most recent development in the Fifty Shades of Grey series. I knew that a high school diploma would never be able to help me restock shelves of the ever-growing list of ghost written James Patterson novels or explain the necessity of signing up for the rewards program to each and every customer.
All of my work since then has been a love letter to this employer of my dreams, playing hard to get while I continue to take their bait. I have written my heart out in search of my place in the paradise of this louder and more expensive, glorified version of a library. I have photographed beautiful places and people, hoping that one day I could look through the lens of my camera and find a wall of advertisements for Nook eReaders, the very thing that could destroy physical books, lining the store entrance as they waited for the command to strike. I have accepted other jobs, stacking my resume patiently as I waited for my true love to accept me, now a wiser and genuinely more experienced potential employee.
Like many others, I have been rejected from Barnes & Noble, but I believe that there is hope for me yet.