Work

Switch

Posted to Work on 7 November 2007, with no comments so far.

by Nate—Age 33—Petaluma, CA When it all started I took phone calls and fixed problems. Technical people called me, software engineers, and I helped them do things that I could never explain to my family. I felt like I had two lives: my days were filled with cubicles and computers, my nights were spent with [...]

Rice

Posted to Work on 5 November 2007, with 3 comments so far.

by Lara—Age 37—Sundance, UT Cleveland, 1987. Most commuters shuttling home on Detroit Road to their five-bedroom tract houses miss Golden Buddha, hidden in a strip mall between a barbershop and a hardware store. I come here after school, three days a week. Wash rice! Wash rice! Mrs. Wu’s high-pitched voice; always the first words I [...]

Nursing

Posted to Work on 2 November 2007, with 2 comments so far.

by Kay—Age 69—Sewell, NJ What had possessed me to think I wanted to be a nurse? I was eighteen years old, filling a washbasin and crying at the sink in the eight bed women’s ward. I was dressed in my blue and white stripped uniform, white stockings and oxfords. The starched cap worn by nursing [...]

Lost

Posted to Work on 1 November 2007, with 1 comment so far.

by Jamie—Age 26—Kingston, NY I was just out of high school, fresh off the chopping block and had to find my means of living. I was in the arcade playing some video games to separate this new adult feeling, when I saw a huddle of blue shirt and khaki pants gang. I soon realized they [...]