Liftoff
Employee One:
Flying with my entire life crammed into two 49.5 lb suitcases wasn’t what had me nervous. I had been doing that for four years.
Employee Too:
I had just grabbed life by the fat of its belly and given it a twist.
Bound on a Northwest flight to La Guardia Airport, I was moving to New York City with no job, not much money, and plenty of hope. As far as Maslow’s pyramid was concerned, I was not very high up. I had a job interview in two days: give a presentation on a non-academic subject to prove that I have the personal skills, blah blah etc. to teach the MCATs for Kaplan.
I was Willy Lomaning myself.
Employee One:
Flying is an experience that changes steadily with age, from adolescent novelty (”Mom, look how high we are!!”) to teenage indignity (”Mom, I can’t believe you’re wearing THAT to the airport”) to collegiate indifference (”Mom, my flight’s delayed four hours. I’m going to watch some Family Guys. See you at midnight”). I imagine flying will become an annoyance as our responsibilities increase, and I am pretty sure it will become a nightmare with the addition of any young dependents.
Employee Too:
I went over my outline, pulled out a steno pad and figured my presentation: How to Make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich.
“I see a grilled cheese sandwich as a template for human expression,” I’d start out. I had little diagrams of how to apply olive oil, an inventive way of slicing cheese, proper sandwich assembly, the whole works.
Employee One:
On my flight back to Boston from what are likely to be my last twelve days of summer vacation ever, I was trying but failing to recapture some of that indifference. ‘No big deal’ I lied to myself. ‘Back to Boston again.’
This time was different than all the trips back during school. This time I was returning to move into an apartment with a person I didn’t know and to start a job I didn’t know how to do, and I was returning to an almost certain breakup with a college girlfriend of three years.
Employee Too:
One-hundred grand on four years of pseudo-ivy league schooling and here I am on a flight to start life anew in New York City with some sketches of sandwiches, a hair-brained scheme and a goofy smile that is keeping me from losing it all together.
Employee One:
It wasn’t supposed to be this dramatic; in fact I had chosen to stay in Boston largely to avoid such drama. Nonetheless, this is how it began. I started full-time employment five days later.