…A writer. An editor. Someone whose work was pretty well received over the years.
I am not simply the invisible hostess who seated you in a booth, then moved you to a bigger one in a closed section, just to be nice and make your lunch a happier and more comfortable one, when your party grew too big for the first booth.
I, too, used to “lunch” during the week.
For one awful, insecure second, I wanted to say all of that to the easily recognizable international news correspondent who came in today.
But I didn’t, of course, and said instead to one of my other favorite downstairs bartenders, “Did I ever tell you I used to be a writer and an editor?”
He smiled, nodded. He couldn’t have cared less.
Which made me care less, too.
Comments
5 responses to “Hey, I Used To Be…”
Hmm…I have my insecure moments like that. When I’m at my photography classes at the local community college, I sometimes have that urge to say, “Hey I graduated from a prestigous private 4-year college. I’m just doing this for fun!” so as not to be confused with these kids who are so content with mediocrity.
In these days of outsourcing, corporate downsizing or whatever, lots of folks out there are “used-ta-bees.” When my wife and I were saving for our first house together, I drove a cab in Denver for a year. Discussing my interest in opera to a famous violin soloist on a $4 ride to rehearsal got me a pair of free concert tickets. Mentioning to another fare that I was (and still am) a book editor got me two nifty freelance assignments. It never hurts to let people know what else you “are” when interacting with them. You never know when something cool, or even life-changing, will take place.
I used to be younger
Love the blog. I work in the servace industry myself and have probably had many of the same experiences you have. Some of them good, others not so good. The only difference is that I only have to deal with them for a couple of minutes.
Heh – I have been feeling that way too of late. I am giving up a career in visual effects and post production for film and television that was working my last everloving nerve to go back to school to become…wait for it…a nurse. And yet, despite the fact that I want to study nursing, there will no doubt be times when I will want to say to people,”You know, the work I did in a former life was nominated for an Emmy and an Oscar: I don’t just change bedpans or bandages. There is so much more to me”. Funny how I think I will want to hang on to that which annoyed me every single day just so that people will see that I am just so much more.
You do good work, and no doubt there is that much more to you.