That’s how I thought that song lyric went until, like, a year ago. I always wondered, how exactly are memories like the corners of one’s eyes, unless they’re red and spongy and occasionally full of boogers?
Anyway, my office just moved into downtown Seattle and I am totally ‘naming.1
I worked in this area twenty years ago and, well, it was not a Mary “We’re Gonna Make It After All” Richards experience. I wore the pantyhose, but there was no joyful tossing of hats in the air. No grump-with-a-heart-of-gold Mr. Grant to whine to. No Rhoda.
When I worked downtown, I was paying my way through college, mostly through office jobs. I did spend 6 months cashiering at a bookstore which I enjoyed because employees could borrow any of the books for free. Oh, there was that one shift as a waitress which ended abruptly when my would-be boss mentioned that she wouldn’t be paying me for my first few days’ worth of work “until she knew if I’d be a good fit.” Other than that, I was an office drone because it paid marginally better than washing dishes.
But honestly, the 4-6 hours a day I spent filing and answering phones wasn’t the hardest part of life back then. The hardest part was being surrounded at school by students who seemed to live astonishingly care-free lives.2
These other students got to live in a campus dorm with their peers instead of a shitty apartment. They got to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities because they had actual free time. They got internships doing things they enjoyed because it didn’t matter that they were paid little or nothing, and hence got a huge head start on their future careers. They got to worry about their grades instead of their rent, food, and grades. They had health insurance.
Even at the time, I knew I couldn’t hold those kids’ good fortune against them. But the experience taught me that the other half – the “have-not-quite-as-much half”, if you will – does indeed often have to work harder for the same things.
It’s been an interesting few days, remembering that other time. I’m proud of Younger Uppity for sticking it out and getting that degree. Happy she didn’t let the hardness of it harden her heart, too. Glad she made it, after all.