Coming Home to Worcester: Priceless
by Amber - October 14, 2008 10:54am
I never thought I would say it felt good to be home, but after spending nearly my entire summer in south-central Nebraska trying my hand at what turned out to be possibly the most hellish job I hope to ever have, I was more than willing to click the heels of my discounted Kenneth Cole heels and make the 26+ hour drive home to Central Mass.
After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in journalism and a minor in anthropology, rugby and bar life 101, I was ready to get started on my life post-college, where people go on dates, wear ironed dress pants and have their own health insurance.
You could say I jumped the gun taking a sports writing position at a family of small newspapers in Nebraska. While I loved the job, the hours (70 a week), puny salary ($22,500) and less-than-stellar reimbursement for mileage (25 cents compared to the government-suggested 58 cents) finally wore on me to the point of packing up my two-door civic and coming home.
Returning to my hometown has served as a chance to appreciate things I hadn’t before I left: people in the Northeast look behind them before they back into the road and for the love of fried food, there is only one fast food restaurant in my hometown – in Hastings, NB where I lived, there was every type of fast food place you could think of, including some mid-western specialties that just pleaded for me to put on that extra five pounds I’m now killing myself to run off.
I had been making calls to places I had interned at in the Worcester area, annoyed job posters from Craig’s List for about two weeks before I actually got home, but I was unprepared for the barren desert that is the job market for recent college grads with degrees in journalism with almost a year’s worth of job experience (I freelance for ESPN!) who are hardworking and friendly in the 508.
Alas, the birth of this blog! I am on the quest for a lot of things in my life right now, but isn’t everyone?
First of all, I am looking for a full-time job with benefits so I can start playing rugby again and get ready for the snowboarding season this winter while paying bills and student loans off. I will eventually be looking for an apartment so I can get out of my parents’ house and into my own crib.
Additionally, I will be looking for inexpensive places to eat (that are not fast food), clean and safe places to run outside, dates, a bar (or two) to call home, fun stuff to do and a place that makes a double-shot vanilla soy latte the way I like it among many other things.
Worcester and the surrounding area has a lot to offer, but with the exception of a few winter breaks and weekends here and there during my senior year at the Zoo, I never had the opportunity to experience Worcester as an of-age, single, rugby-playing college graduate.
So here it goes, wish me luck and check back to see how I’m doing and I will give you a heads-up on the goods I find around Wormtown.
