Starting From the Bottom

People’s reactions to my announcement became a Rorschach test that was fairly accurate at predicting the length of time we’d be in touch after graduation. It sounded cool enough to a few of my closest friends who decided to do the same, and we all began to prepare ourselves for a great migration out West. We dreamed of open skies, a chilled-out vibe, and the space to become fully realized, whatever we thought that meant. It wasn’t much of a plan but it felt like a better plan that most people had, which involved getting a regular office job. But by this time, my grassroots publishing class had begun to work its way under my skin, and I liked the way it took root there. I pictured myself running a similar enterprise someday. We published a magazine each semester, and planning out the issues, the front-of-the-book stories, features, and profiles that we would include was exciting in a way I didn’t even know was possible. In those classes, the beginnings of an idea took shape, if only I could figure out how to finance it. The reality that I had spent the last four years doing everything but studying literature, writing, and reading started to weigh on me, even though all of those areas interested me the most. But I figured I would stockpile cash, leather jackets, and skinny jeans, move to a city, live in a one-room apartment, and work and intern for free in exchange for experience points. Simple enough, right?

I really loved this essay on waitressing and post-college anxiety by Jenna Wortham, particularly the above excerpt; working a service job while your friends and peers pursue more education or entry-level office jobs really is like a Rorschach test for compatibility. I have a bias operating in the other direction, I think, where I don’t trust people who don’t or haven’t worked some kind of service job. My background is retail, but anything where you deal with customer service and get paid to be physically present by the hour counts. I just really believe — -in my limited, personal, biased experience, sure — -that people who have worked in restaurants, retail, or customer service in general are often better collaborators, friends, co-workers because of what they learn in those jobs. That’s what I see in their…inkblots? Human inkblots? I don’t know, you get it.