ISSUES | winter 2001

24.3 Cover

24.3 (Winter 2001): "Hardship"

Featuring work by George Bilgere, Mary Bush, Stephen Raleigh Byler, Richard Chiappone, Stacia J. N. Decker, Camille Dungy, Randall Fuller, Wayne Holmes, Jesse Kercheval, Kris Lackey, Anna Meek, Alex Mindt, David Rompf, Alisa Slaughter, Margo Tamez

CONTENT FROM THIS ISSUE

24.3 Cover

Nonfiction

Sep 01 2001

Counter Culture: The Hard Work of Selling Myself Short

The same day I was officially put in charge of shoes and used clothing at Store 5, I came home to my run-down apartment in northeast Washington, DC, to find my first grad-school rejection letter. I thought I was gooing to be stuck in retail for the rest of my life. The soles of my feet were expanding with a new ridge of calluses. I’d dropped enough weight that I worried people would think I was bulimic when I scuffed my knuckles at work. I now looked upon short acrylic nails as an investment.