Today was my first job at a vintage/consignment shop in downtown Montpelier. The owner seems nice and the girls I've worked with seem pretty cool. It's nice knowing I'll be getting paid (at some point. Don't they need my SSN and stuff? Whatever.). Frankly, it's not that hard. I've been doing retail since high school, and it's just more of the same, but with clothes. And I like clothes! I can talk intelligently about fabrics and patterns and knitwear vs knits! I think it'll work out.
This is my new store! Yes, I do get the Daft Punk song stuck in my head all the time.
Most importantly, it's a flexible part time schedule that allows me to pursue my myriad other interests. I'm waiting on my approval to mentor an at-risk kid by reading to them once a week at lunch. I really want to get it. It sounds like a great program, and right up my alley. I'm also in contact with the Vermont Historical Society to do some volunteer work with them. Would it be nice to get paid to spout interesting historical facts all day? Of course. But I'll take the experience and try to parlay it into something bigger.
During my interview for this job, she asked me why, if I finished college, I wasn't doing something in my field. I was flummoxed at the time (but managed some kind of joke that moved the conversation forward). What's the right response to this question? I studied two languages and science, what the hell am I supposed to do with that? Do biological research in English and French? Work for the Olympics? The truth of the matter is I'm a writer, but a writer with bills to pay. I need a job that pays decently while leaving me enough creative energy at the end of the day to sit down and put some words on paper. No, my stories don't fund themselves, but they're critically important to me and to who I am. Am I going to sell old clothes forever? Of course not. But I need to come up with some cash by the end of the month so my landlord doesn't throw me out on my ass. (He would not do this. He's a nice guy and frankly it's too much work to evict us. But he'd pester me for the money for sure.)
What am I going to do with my life? The plan had always been to work for a couple years after college, have some adventures, and then go back for my MFA in creative writing. I'm not an engineer. A good friend told me that people who go to grad school right after getting their BA come out ready to write their first novel. People who get a little life experience and then go back come out having written their first novel. That really stuck with me. I'd been in a rut in Minneapolis, which is part of the reason for the sudden change of scenery. I needed to shake myself loose a little. I still want to be a writer, but as I watch the publishing and book sales industries collapse on themselves, I can't help but be a little wary. Girls like me would normally go to New York and become editors for a couple of years, but those jobs barely exist anymore. It seems much more feasible to be a writer on the side and something else for my day job.
I know I want a Richard Scarry job (i.e. a job that a boa constrictor or pig did in a Richard Scarry book. Basically, a job I can explain to a five year old without their eyes glazing over. No offense to all the marketing analysts out there.). Possibilities:
1. Teacher
Jess from "New Girl" and I are basically doppelgangers anyway
For the longest time I wanted to be a professor, but I've seen what a slog it is. You basically sell yourself into academic slavery with no guarantee of a tenureship at the end. A life of being an adjunct is hardly worth it. The more I think about it, the more I think high school might be the place for me. Yes, high school is awful, but everyone loves a great HS English teacher. I could change lives! Or at least boss people around and tell them what to read. Also, summers off.
2. Doctor
My life would be "The Mindy Project"
When I started college, I thought I was going to be a scientist. I entered as a biology major with English as my minor before I flipped them around. We're going to be facing a shortage of doctors as the Baby Boomers age. Plus, it seems easy. No, easy isn't the right word. It's straight forward. You go to med school, you do your residency, you're a doctor. None of this starving artist bullshit. Downside: it's a lot of work, long hours, you get jerked around by bureaucracy all the time (and teacher doesn't?).
3. Fireman
There's no Fox sitcom about lady firefighters (yet)
I like being on my feet, doing something active. I'm also surprisingly strong. You get to go to the gym and eat chili all the time, plus you save lives. And you get a dalmatian.
So we'll see. For now, I'm just another underemployed English major in a shitty economy trying to pay her rent on time. Ben made a joke about me writing the next Harry Potter, but who knows? Stranger things have happened. Just ask E.L. James. Terrible, awful, borderline illiterate E.L. James. A millionaire.
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