That’s a phrase I rarely say out loud. I said it once and couldn’t help but notice the shock on people’s faces. At the time, I was working at a Midwestern university as a Research Assistant. I was in a Master’s program. I worked with people who were in Master’s or Doctoral programs, as well as people who had completed these programs and were now professional researchers…researching, of all things, social inequality. Funny. I guess not a lot of folks from non-academic backgrounds ever make it that far up the academic food chain to graduate studies.
From the time I was a freshman in high school, I had a crush on Mike. He was a senior at the time. He was gorgeous! He had beautiful brown eyes. He was warm and outgoing. His girlfriend’s sister was in my grade, so I couldn’t help but stare when he came by her locker (several lockers down from mine) to chat. Every time I saw him, my heart missed a beat. This went on for more than four years. He went to a local college and lived with his father in my small town. I would see him only rarely over the years. Then, when I worked at 7-Eleven, he came into the store! I just about had a myocardial infarction.
Who knew there was a plus side to working at a minimum wage job at a convenience store where many customers treated you like the scum of the earth, assuming they acknowledged your existence at all? Fortunately, he came in again another time. By the time I developed the courage to maintain eye contact with him and smile, he had become a regular customer. He still had the same girlfriend from four years earlier. Eventually he broke up with her…and became my very first boyfriend. I was 19.
