Broken ladder, New Mexico style
JOBS
Refuting his artistic nature, Mike goes mainstream looking for jobs. After experiencing a long string of heinous retail positions and bouts of mysterious body pains, he abandons retail for another full-time position – reading heinous wants ads.
The opening to “Jobs:”
A number of years after I got my BA in film studies – my third college degree – I was still lost, still asking what I wanted to do with my life. I was never going to be a famous screenwriter, or director, or anything overnight. Plain and simple, the movie industry wasn’t for me. So just where was I to land?
The only successful people I knew had worked their way up to get there, often from humble beginnings. That’s what Dad did. He’d always believed in order to make it in this world, one had to work hard and fight his way up the system. Born in 1913 in Maine of immigrant parents, he’d labored through many mundane town jobs to help the family pay for food. Dad never mentioned what those jobs were, perhaps because memories of them were too painful. But whenever he brought up college experiences, he proudly beamed about working as a golf caddie to pay for his school expenses. By schlepping heavy leather golf bags on weekends for modest tips, he was able to pay his debts and receive his architect degree at the University of New Hampshire. He was a post-Depression, New England success story.
All I knew at fifty was that I wanted to do find work I could wholeheartedly get behind, something integral to my life regardless of what it was or what it looked like.
Maybe retail was where I was destined to earn a living. It provided a system where I could – through hard work and determination – work my way up and eventually make some good money. After all, it was a marketplace, a business in the business of making money.
The local natural foods grocery store where I shopped seemed like a good fit.
Note: I am currently seeking representation for my book. Please see my contacts page for how to get hold of me.
Mike Andberg 