How to be 24

You wake up early

Dress like you got somewhere to be

Leave before your roommate who has a job

Take a breath of fresh air before you hit the pavement

To the local coffee shop,

Where they don’t care that you only order a refillable cup of coffee.

There, free wifi only costs a dollar sixty five

Plus interest.

NPR is playing on the satellite radio

And you hear about the economy

Greyly good news, Dow Jones, consumer confidence.

Maybe you’ll get an email today…

Maybe today’s the day.

Gmail tells you about the weather in your area:

Cloudy with a chance of…

No emails today,

Just facebook updates and Amnesty asking to you write another letter to your congressman

Nothing that tells you

Anything about your worth as a constructive member of society--

Fuck that.

You want to move to Fiji and live in a hut and fish for your dinner.

Stick it to the man.

Fuck the Great Recession.

And you stop and think about it…

Need money for the plane ticket.

So back to your love-hate with Craig

And G-chat with friends who have jobs or are in gradschool

And tell them that you just keep on keeping on when they ask.

You open a post that looks appealing enough:

ADMIN ASST. NON-PROF with BENEFITS.

You copy-paste the email address.

Go to your folder labeled “Employment.”

Attach the “ADMIN ASSISTANT” resume.

Copy-paste the “ADMIN ASSISTANT” cover letter into the body of the email.

Change the name of your future employer (fingers crossed).

Double check the name of your future employer (fingers crossed).

Double check you attached the resume.

Triple check all of the above.

Say a prayer,

Though you’re less and less sure

What that even means

With each refillable cup of coffee

You charge.

“Send.”

Sigh and repeat.