My First Real Job

Following three great pieces by Karen Swallow Prior, Rebecca Warren, and Doug Sikkema, respectively, today at Fieldnotes Magazine I share the story of my first real job. Here’s an excerpt:

On a typical day at my first real job, it would not have been outside the realm of possibility to find me carrying a loveseat up a fire escape and through a second-floor living room window. Or to find me sitting in the waiting room at the Social Security office, alternately watching the ticket counter and reading a book (these were, at least for me, pre-smartphone days). Or I’d be driving a van full of children and adults listening to—and singing along with—the local Spanish radio station. Otherwise I was usually at the office, taking care of paperwork or talking clients through the ins and outs of paying their rent.

This was my routine as a caseworker in the Cuban/Haitian refugee resettlement program at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania office of Church World Service, the relief and development arm of the National Council of Churches.

Read the rest here.