Christine Axsmith
Losing It All
Having successfully destroyed my career in the intelligence community, I became professional toxic waste. Friends weren't allowed to speak to me anymore whom I had known for years.
The only person who would hire me was myself. After two months wrapped in a blanket watching American Movie Classics, I answered an ad on Craigslist for a dog walker in Bloomingdale. The dog's owner couldn't find any other dog walker to go there at the time. Forty-five dollars a week was better than nothing, so I took the job.
From there, I built a successful dog-walking business. This talk will outline the basics of building a business, funny stories about working with canines and humans, and falling off of the social ladder with a thud. The experience gave me a new perspective on the resume fodder with which I used to fill my life.
The Washington, DC experience is one of social status and power. "Where do you work?" asks many questions at once. It asks "How important are you?" "Do I need to be nice to you?" "Should I invite you to my party?" "Could you be useful to me?"
Now imagine the answer is "dog walker."
People in Washington, DC are so status-conscious, they brag about the advanced degrees of their dog walkers.
All of this has turned me into a Socialist, but that is another talk for another day.
About Christine Axsmith:
Christine Axsmith is a playwright, poet and provocateur. She has been published in a myriad of places which will suitably impress if you are into that kind of thing. Look up her name on Google, if you must.
She writes the oft-ignored blog Econo-Girl, where her accurate predictions of impending doom are not read by her mother, despite protests to the contrary.
