Acquisitions Associate
by Vanessa—Age 28—Jacksonville, FL
I went to college because I didn’t want to be working in the fast food industry in my fifties. I left my mom’s house at sixteen and began working as a line server at the Old Country Buffet. I manicured the salad bar from nine in the morning until eleven at night. I wore an apron and a hairnet and became best friends with a sixty-year old meat carver named Sal while my friends were taking limos to the prom.
Six months later, I upgraded to three jobs. For lunch, I served Italian; for dinner I sat droves of regulars at the town’s most popular bar and grill; for the cocktail hour I babysat the cocktail’s waitress’s two kids.
There was the year as a cashier in a car wash until it closed down as a cocaine front. I was a legitimate employee in an illegitimate company. I showed up for work on a cold January morning dreading washing cars all day only to find there wasn’t a “work” anymore. It was a pleasant surprise and the job taught me what I needed to know—how to drive a stick.
I worked in two microbreweries and fell in love with beer. The bartender gave each of us one free beer at the end of the shift. I met some of the best friends of my life over those shift beers. I went to college—it took seven years for a Bachelor’s and I lost thirty credits and gained perspective somewhere along the way. I learned that most students are destined for a cultural deficit much deeper than any fifty-year-old McDonalds worker but I got the degree because I loved books and wanted to be off my feet.
I have a desk job now that ebbs and flows with less energy sometimes. The accomplishment is less instant and can be deeper—sometimes. I’m called an acquisitions associate—a Chandler Bing of real estate—and I have my nights and weekends to myself which is lovely. I still miss the shift beer at the end of the night though.
3 Comments