My first job was selling shoes.
Sixteen years old.
Needed gas money.
Bought a cowboy hat with my first check.
Went to college.
Started part-time at a hotel.
Went to full-time when I quit college.
Thought I knew everything I needed to know.
Worked in fast food,
then as a bank teller,
then started waiting tables.
That lasted awhile.
Shifted into bartending.
More prestigious.
Did that through school.
(Realized I didn’t know everything I needed to know.)
Got a Masters degree.
Started teaching.
Part-time, then full.
Had more fun bartending, frankly.
Took a medical transcription job.
More money than teaching.
Got to work from home.
Scattered throughout were the odd jobs –
in a plant nursery,
in a wood-working shop,
in a music studio.
Gave real estate a go.
The mortgage business,
Sales, free-lance writing.
It got downright embarrassing.
Don’t think I’ll tell anyone
I think I might be a poet.
Deb Moore 