Sentences
by Holly–Age 37–Spokane, WA
Age 17:
Waitressed at The Huckleberry, in the mountain town of McCall, Idaho. I was eager to please. Customers scared me. Coworkers slipped me Xanax. Later, in college, I studied for tests with one sentence taped to my desk: Never Waitress Again.
Age 22:
Graduated with a B.A. in English; moved home, waitressed again. One day I got a call from Japan. My friend Shyanne begged me to come teach English in Tokyo with her. I taught for two years. We called ourselves “Conversation Dentists” because motivating students to speak often felt like pulling teeth.
Age 24:
Flew from Tokyo to Virginia to visit a college roommate who’d married a sailor. On a whim, I submitted a story about rollerblading in Japan to The Westmoreland News. They hired me. Then I picked up a second job teaching adult education in the prison. The dress code (no white, no pants, no cleavage, no makeup, no jewelry) made me, a single woman, feel as sexy as Grandma Moses. I only lasted nine months before I had to know the breeze on my knees again. I am a wild seed, I let the wind carry me, I told myself. Then the monsoons came.
Late 20’s:
Autumn. My engagement fell apart, my dog was killed by a car and the politics of the town I lived in turned nasty, poisoning our jobs at the paper. Moved back to Idaho and was saved from waitressing by a mild nervous breakdown.
When my parents’ sympathy wore thin, I moved to Spokane for graduate school. Took an editing job with a network marketing company. Yeah, like Amway—only not so famous.
Early 30’s:
Became the senior editor after the original senior editor had twins and moved to the Midwest. Published two magazines per month—one pushing the product, one revving up the distributors. I sold faith and belief. Then one day in a marketing meeting, a senior executive asked us all to sample the new dog biscuits.
I believed it was time to move on. I started working part-time in our local indie bookstore and never left. Now I write the newsletter and meet local and big-name authors, which is handy for a writer. I guess you could say I’m back where I started: waiting (for my big break) and serving (the community of bibliophiles). Oh, and I have an MFA in creative writing.
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