Year: 2021
“What Saved You?”
My brother has had and still has a difficult life. He left home at 14 and made his way from there. He has a scar on his forearm I am curious about. I’ve asked him about it lots of times, but he has never told me how he got it. I wasn’t sure if he …
Looks Like a Good Life
Is there anyone you look at and think, ‘it looks like they have a pretty good life’? It’s not envy exactly. More like an appreciative curiosity. The famous person that fits this for me is Cate Blanchett. The non-famous one is Donna Adler. Donna was a year ahead of me in dental hygiene school. She …
The Clothes On My Back
I left him with the clothes on my back, which unfortunately were casual shorts and a ratty t-shirt. Because of this, when I tried to get an apartment in the renovated piano factory with thick brick walls and twelve-foot ceilings, the apartment manager wouldn’t show me one, suggested I look elsewhere. My lungs deflated even …
Proud of an Argument
I am surprisingly proud of a fight I had with my first husband, the man in the purple suspenders. I disagreed with him and held my ground, didn’t cave. I’d never done that before. Six or so years into our marriage, things weren’t going well and we both knew it. His suggestion was for us …
Base Salary
Writing about my $26,000 salary triggered a memory. Or maybe I’m still not over it. At Andersen, we sat in cubicles, in pairs. It was an odd arrangement because it put two people in one cube. Yes, we had our own desks and file drawers, but there was no privacy. One day, ‘Jason,’ my cubemate, …
No Regrets
I left Minnesota and the financial aid office behind when I accepted an internship, followed by a full-time position at Arthur Andersen in Chicagoland. The job was a prize. Yes, because it was a plum position for an instructional design graduate but also, because my salary more than doubled, from $12,500 to $26,000. But. But …
“My Son Needs Your Help”
I loved May in the financial aid office, not just for the weather that didn’t yet require air conditioning the building didn’t have, but because it was the slowest month of the year. The school’s fiscal year was July through June. July was the start of the financial aid award season and April was the …
That’s Not How We Do Things, plus a Freebie!
I had been a financial aid counselor for only a few months when the manager of the bullpen had a disagreement with his boss and stormed out of the office, never to return. After three days, a colleague and I were named the temporary co-managers of the bullpen. We were the two newest, youngest counselors …
“We Need a Short-Term Loan”
Because my goal was to get promoted from secretary to financial aid counselor, I decided to dress like what I wanted to be, instead of what I was. Only secretaries wore sweaters. The sweaters had to go. After I’d saved enough money to go shopping, that’s what I did. The two new, inexpensive suits could …