#e boost; i remember being proud of myself for socializing like that LOL

[weezerlvr228]

flippin boobahs!

[beautifulrzilience]

“So, why you working at Staples?”

Hey ya’ll! Good afternoon. It feels like I haven’t really been on here (even though I took one day off). I’m still trying to figure out how this whole blogging thing works. When I should blog, how long, how often, etc. At the same time, I don’t want to burn myself out. In addition, I want to make sure that what I am writing about is thoughtful, provocative, and useful. So bare with me if you can.

Today I really feel compelled to talk about hustling while in graduate school. I remember back when I was an undergraduate, our McNair program directors hired this guy Don Asher to come talk to us about graduate school. By the way, if you don’t know what the Ronald E. McNair program is -- LOOK IT UP (It is a program designed for first-generation and/or low income undergraduate students of color who are interested in graduate school but have no idea how to get there. I think a big part of my success in getting into graduate school is thanks to having participated in this program). So I guess this guy was a big deal, some white guy who was being hired by hundreds of programs across the country to give us socially and culturally deprived kids the 411 about how to get to grad school and how to navigate it. I don’t remember much of what he said-except for one thing: hustling. 

He was going on and on about using our talents and creativity to find ways to make extra money while in graduate school, since even if we were to get fully funded in a program, it wasn’t going to be enough to sustain ourselves financially. And so when I first matriculated into UC Berkeley, and I realized my single studio was going to cost me $1,200 a month, plus a monthly $80 fee for my parking spot, $400 for groceries, my $390 car note, gas, living expenses etc. -- I also realized that the $1,500 a month I was getting from being a Graduate Student Instructor was not going to cut it.

So you’d think that of course I was going to naturally look for jobs that would boost my CV (curriculum vitae; a.k.a academic resume) up, which would mean searching for jobs that were relevant to academia. After all, I was a Doctoral Graduate Student at UC Berkeley. However, after being constantly stiffled with the elitism of students and faculty at Berkeley, I decided that I would look for a non-academic job. I just didn’t want to be around academics all day. They can be stuffy. I wanted to be somewhere where I could be my ‘authentic’ self. Talk about Love & Hip Hop and Bad Girls Club--talk shit--keep it real about life--you feel me?

So I thought, “Hmm, what are my options?” Well I knew what working in retail was like (since I was 16 I began working as a grocery bagger at Ralph’s Grocery store in Newport Beach,CA), maybe I’d try working somewhere (not in the grocery store business because I promised if I didn’t have to--I’d never go back--talk about humbling experience) where I could get some perks. Perhaps, Sephora (at the time I had discovered my love for makeup), or maybe Victoria Secrets (that’s before I knew how they exploited incarcerated peoples for their labor). But in the end, I randomly ended up getting hired at the Staples right across my studio. 

I know, STAPLES.

But let me tell you the story of how it happened-- how this came into fruition--and how this in itself was-and has been another humbling and rewarding experience. Because not only did it serve as a motivation to keep pushing through in school, but I also realized that some of the smartest people I know end up working at Staples. Some of these people are some of my closest friends I have. Friends that have become more like extended family. 

(from left to right: Napoleon Davila (my gay best friend), Joel Jara (my viejo who I had to force to be my best friend), Mary Giovanetti (my Italian Jersey girl), and Adam Vargas (you just gotta talk to him for 5 minutes--he a crazy one) This was my going away party at some bar in Berkeley, CA)

So one day I headed down to Staples because I needed a planner so I could manage my time efficiently (because at the graduate level, things can get a little hectic with all the responsibilities you end up having as a graduate student). As I find the isle I needed, there was a big hefty Black man on this ladder organizing some of the store’s merchandise. I guess he noticed that I was having a hard time deciding between the planners and asked me if I needed help. I looked up (I was sitting on the floor at this point and had a handful of different planners in front of me) and asked him, “Which one do you think is cuter?” He started laughing and his laugh was contagious so I started laughing and I told him, “I know, I know but I’m serious.” I don’t remember how things unfolded but we started chopping it up right then and there. We talked about issues pertaining to the Black and Latino community. At some point I remember interrupting him and asked, “Dude, what are you doing here? You’re so smart you should be in school!” That’s when he disclosed some of his personal life history and his struggles growing up in the Bay Area as a young Black brotha. 

I don’t know what compelled me to ask, but I did anyways, “Hey do you know if they’re hiring here?” in which he replied, “Yes we are.” So I asked, “Where’s the manager?” “I am the manager, stop by tomorrow for an interview.” I thanked him, finally picked a planner, went up to the front desk and paid for my shit and walked home. The next day I showed up for my interview, which turned out to be super informal. I’m never going to forget it, “Listen I already knew I was going to hire you, this is just for formalities. You have a great attitude and personality and we could use some of that to change the culture around here. You’re hired.”  LOL I know! Just like that, I ended up landing a job as a cashier at Staples in downtown Berkeley, CA. Who knew me going in there just to buy a planner for school would result in me getting the perfect part-time job that was right across from my place. Talk about convenient. 

The beginning was a little awkward for me. Getting adjusted to this type of work. Again, I had been used to working in a predominantly white and rich community in Southern California and as a grocery bagger at that. But things got better and I quickly befriended the people at my store. Before I knew it, I found myself at Staples quite often hanging out even if I wasn’t on the clock. Eventually I ended up transferring to the Copy and Print Center and that’s when things really took off. You could hear my hyena cackles from across the store. That’s how the “CC Krew & Allies” was born. Some of the funnest, memorable memories I have are with these people. When I got accepted into CUNY, I knew that meant having to say bye (not forevaa) to my homies at (what’s now called) the Print & Marketing Center and at Staples and I would transfer to the Staples that coincidentally enough (or not, maybe it’s just destiny) was going to be right down the street from my new studio. But I wasn’t sure if I would actually go through with the transfer because I just thought about what it would take to build a new family in a different place, and my heart just didn’t want to.

But fast forward to today, August 25th 2017, I made the decision to go through with my transfer  to the Staples out here in Harlem, NY. I thought it was going to be a hassle and it wasn’t. So I take it as a good sign. I’m open to making new family connections out here in the East Coast. I know I got a good job as a researcher for The Safe Return Project back in Richmond, CA (who were so generous to let me work away from Cali), and I am a Research Assistant for a professor for John Jay, but there’s a unique opportunity of familial kinship at Staples. And as far as sustaining myself through grad school, as my mom told me this morning, “Muy bueno hija, para que tengas un poco de dinero extra..” (Translation: “This is good baby girl, you’ll have some extra money coming in). My rent out here is $1,500 a month. I will be spending $115 a month on the train (a.k.a bart for my Bay area folks) for transportation... food.. clothes etc. 

The reality is folks, that for us People of Color, we have to hustle. That’s the name of the game. Nicki Minaj isn’t going to always pay our loans or our college tuition. Drake isn’t going to fund our research so that we don’t have to work. We have to constantly be hustling and grinding to make our educational aspirations a reality. 

And as a working class Woman of Color, I know this game all too well. I’m literally living the “American Dream.” From cleaning houses at the age of five with my mom in the upper echelons of Balboa, CA--to bagging groceries in Newport Beach, CA--to working as a cashier at Staples-- even if not the most glamorous jobs, I am grateful that I was able to make some extra cash for myself so that I didn’t have to financially depend on my parents who slave away each and every day to provide for us. I am proud of the hard work ethic my family has instilled in my brother and I. I am never going to be above taking a job at a place like Staples. In the words of one of good friends and mentees Jesse Ruiz, “Stay hungry, stay humble, & pay your dues!” So if you need a copy, hit yo girl up at the Print & Marketing Center. I got you.