The Apprentice: my favorite memory.

What was my favorite memory from The Apprentice? There were actually quite a few really sweet moments, where I caught myself thinking– is this really happening? But the first time I was asked the question and had to give an answer was on a radio interview a few weeks ago. Once I thought of the answer, I knew that I had found it.

A few days after I “switched teams”, it was dawning on me that this wasn’t all that I had hoped for. After the honey task, I realized I was going to be blamed in the boardroom no matter what because I was the outsider. Combined with the fact that I was a first-time project manager during the Priceline.com task, I knew that a loss certainly sent me home. I packed my bags. Literally. We had a couple of hours between the conclusion of that task and when we went to the boardroom to hear the result. I actually packed my bags ahead of time realizing that one of two things would happen: 1) if we won, we would move back in the house or 2) we lost and I was pretty much going home. Once I packed my bag and put it by the door, I spent the next hour or so cleaning the camp so my friends on Kinetic wouldn’t once again come to a filthy camp (the previous week there was not an opportunity to clean).

However, I took a very important break between packing and cleaning. I went to ask permission. “Permission for what?” you might ask. Permission to call my mother. You see, it was her birthday and I have talked to my mom on every one of her birthdays for as long as I can remember. But if you live in the backyard, you’re out of luck as there is no phone– only in the house. There was no sympathy for me, I was told something to the effect of “if you had won last week you wouldn’t be out here. sorry.” So I’m in the backyard thinking that I might not talk to my mom on her bday for the first time, wondering if I was going to go home because I had the audacity to take a risk and switch teams, and all that other stuff swirling around. Also, a funny side story: I went around to every member of team Arrow and told them that I thought they did an awesome job and there was nothing more I could have asked of them or that they could have done. I did this before we found out if we won or lost because if we had lost, I worried that I’d wuss out. But by telling them this, it’s kind of hard for me to say they didn’t perform on the task if I just told them that they did everything possible. So if we lost, I was sending myself home and I wasn’t going to get to talk to my mom on my birthday. (for background, my mom is my favorite person ever. that’s why this was important)

Those of you who watched the show probably remember that we won the task. I remember exhaling and not going crazy when we heard we won. That’s all I felt. Relief. But once we got inside that house, and I called my mom (by this point it was late and I had to wake her up because she works nights), I just had this feeling of peacefulness. It was a feeling of satisfaction. I remembered that it was the feeling that I used to get when I was a kid and spent the entire day shoveling driveways and I’d get home exhausted but with a pocketful of 5 and 10 dollar bills. Anyway, that moment to me was the best. I got to call my mom on her birthday. I had led the team to victory (editing be damned : ) ) when the deck was totally stacked against me. It was great. Meeting Snoop, Bocelli, Hefner (and the mansion), Puck, all of that stuff was cool. But it’s funny, being able to call my mom on that day in June was my favorite memory.