My tribute to "The Gum Thief"
Dear Bethany, (Oct 6/07)
I'm 23 and just moved to Vancouver. I actually worked at a Staples in the industrial/trashy district in Calgary the summer before last.They made me a Computer Sales Associate despite my complete lack of computer hardware related knowledge. I've worked a whole bunch of crummy jobs to put myself through my undergrad. I guess I was one of the kids who works there who is "going somewhere" (though really, the jobs you can get with a B.A. are pretty much the same ones as with a high school diploma--hence law school at UBC). Everyone else at Zellers/Staples/Tim Hortons seems to know that you are leaving in four months out of the hell hole. It's like doing a short prison term surrounded by lifers.
Actually, Staples was the first crappy summer job I actually liked. I worked mostly evenings and there was pretty much no one in the store so I usually ended up watching TV in the laptop section. I would flirt with the three fingered Mormon guy who actually looked like a Viking. People in McJobs are so much more interesting than the ones in university. People in university are predictable. There are really smart people who don't have to work, a range of relatively smart people with varying degrees of work ethic, and a group of dumb kids that either work really hard, or drop out, or are rich so it doesn't matter. The thing is that they are totally isolated from the rest of society and completely clueless about what real work, or real problems or anything dirty in life involves. I think there are a whole class of people in our society that live in a massive denial bubble. I actually was taking with this 31 year old who decided to completely change her life after working as a computer programmer in the States for years and come to law school. I asked her, probably not the most tactful thing to do, about her twenties cause I'm having a hell of a time with mine and she said that everything was sunshine and lollipops until she was 27 when she realized things don't always go to plan!!!!! Jesus! I can't think of a thing in my life that has gone to plan. At least people in McJobs, no matter how fucked up or retarded or disabled they are, they admit it. You can see a deadness in their eyes and relate. Pretending to be this pretty, marketable package is the most soul killing thing ever. Sometimes I wish I wore heavy makeup, but I can't, I'm too lazy, everything is pretty much visible. I seem to wear my bruises.
I moved to Vancouver two weeks before school started and was horribly lonely. I went to English Bay and swam in the ocean everyday and talked to no one. Now that school has started things are better, I guess, in the fact that they are ridiculously busy. I'm bright and happy and entertaining all the time at school and distracted into not thinking. Most of my waking day is spent avoiding actual thought. Roger drinks, you wore goth makeup, I read law textbooks, watch massive amounts of downloaded TV and pretend. I think I'm the new, modern version of the crazy cat lady. I've taken to actually sleeping beside my laptop, books I've been reading, my journal. Surrounding myself with my baggage. I can't sleep without the glow of my laptop. Watching streaming videos of South Park or the Daily Show. I can't think, especially not if I'm going to sleep.
sometime I'll finish this...
I'm 23 and just moved to Vancouver. I actually worked at a Staples in the industrial/trashy district in Calgary the summer before last.They made me a Computer Sales Associate despite my complete lack of computer hardware related knowledge. I've worked a whole bunch of crummy jobs to put myself through my undergrad. I guess I was one of the kids who works there who is "going somewhere" (though really, the jobs you can get with a B.A. are pretty much the same ones as with a high school diploma--hence law school at UBC). Everyone else at Zellers/Staples/Tim Hortons seems to know that you are leaving in four months out of the hell hole. It's like doing a short prison term surrounded by lifers.
Actually, Staples was the first crappy summer job I actually liked. I worked mostly evenings and there was pretty much no one in the store so I usually ended up watching TV in the laptop section. I would flirt with the three fingered Mormon guy who actually looked like a Viking. People in McJobs are so much more interesting than the ones in university. People in university are predictable. There are really smart people who don't have to work, a range of relatively smart people with varying degrees of work ethic, and a group of dumb kids that either work really hard, or drop out, or are rich so it doesn't matter. The thing is that they are totally isolated from the rest of society and completely clueless about what real work, or real problems or anything dirty in life involves. I think there are a whole class of people in our society that live in a massive denial bubble. I actually was taking with this 31 year old who decided to completely change her life after working as a computer programmer in the States for years and come to law school. I asked her, probably not the most tactful thing to do, about her twenties cause I'm having a hell of a time with mine and she said that everything was sunshine and lollipops until she was 27 when she realized things don't always go to plan!!!!! Jesus! I can't think of a thing in my life that has gone to plan. At least people in McJobs, no matter how fucked up or retarded or disabled they are, they admit it. You can see a deadness in their eyes and relate. Pretending to be this pretty, marketable package is the most soul killing thing ever. Sometimes I wish I wore heavy makeup, but I can't, I'm too lazy, everything is pretty much visible. I seem to wear my bruises.
I moved to Vancouver two weeks before school started and was horribly lonely. I went to English Bay and swam in the ocean everyday and talked to no one. Now that school has started things are better, I guess, in the fact that they are ridiculously busy. I'm bright and happy and entertaining all the time at school and distracted into not thinking. Most of my waking day is spent avoiding actual thought. Roger drinks, you wore goth makeup, I read law textbooks, watch massive amounts of downloaded TV and pretend. I think I'm the new, modern version of the crazy cat lady. I've taken to actually sleeping beside my laptop, books I've been reading, my journal. Surrounding myself with my baggage. I can't sleep without the glow of my laptop. Watching streaming videos of South Park or the Daily Show. I can't think, especially not if I'm going to sleep.
sometime I'll finish this...