Out of the nest? Sept. 7, 2012

  

She can never be content in a job like this, even if she trickles her way to the top, there isn’t much there.

Somewhere in all this, there has to be something else she’s striving for, a next stop on the career-bound bus, just as her writing for free for New York online publications led to this.

The gossip at the front step claims she called this “a stepping stone,” to something more grandiose, where she might get true recognition for her amazing talents.

Writing here, however, has put her in touch with a number of celebrities and others, access to people who know people and who might provide her with the next stepping stone.

She is flexible but running out of time.

Most people make their mark in their 20s, something she apparently hoped to do when she was pursuing her musical career. When that didn’t pan out, she turned to writing.

But here she is already 33 and is still caught in this piss-ant little company where there is no room at the top for her, and yet no apparent place for her to jump off to.

And she has to make the leap before she ends up trapped in this place like the rest of us are.

For all of her excellent stories published, she still hasn’t gotten the attention of anyone that might help her make the transition – and perhaps that is a good thing.

Her trickling up mostly works in places like ours, where there is a simple power structure.

Places like The New York Times or the Philadelphia Enquirer there is a pecking order that often keeps people in their place for years, with no easy way to climb up without first paying their dues.

I’m reminded of her poem in which she relegates her life to 13 numbers, leaving out the 11th hour, which in Biblical terms aptly describes her as the person who comes in at the 11th hour yet expects to get recognition as if she had been here from the beginning. This would not do in an upscale place like The Times, and so, she will likely have to change careers again if she wants to keep climbing and change to a place with a simple power structure where she can work her magic.

At what point does her frustration with this place cause her to make her move? Or does it always take something dramatic to shove her out of the nest?


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