Appearances
A fictional short-short story
I write, I should say, I wrote, for the Chicago Post, the entertainment columnist. Although I‘m politically moderate, my finger to the wind told me I better give a nod to non-binaries, BIPOCs, the disabled, and radicals. I got speaking engagements at five sometimes ten grand a pop. I threw lavish parties for glitterati, in my understated luxury condo, the best caterers, including white-jacketed servers. Got press passes to Sundance, Cannes, even Davos.
It worked until my boss replaced me with someone with “fresher perspectives.”
Now, speaking engagements? “Uh, would you speak for free?”
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Invitations to Sundance and Cannes? No more.
Parties? Lots of polite regrets, especially from big draws. And I have to buy hors d’ oeuvres and $7 champagne at Trader Joe’s, and serve it all myself, bullshitting, “It feels more personal.”
Get another journalism job? Hah. The J schools turn out zillions of wannabes willing to work for peanuts so their resume can say they worked at a brand-name media outlet. A 40-year old of the “wrong” demographic who was making $110,000 and just got “laid off?”
I need to sell my condo.
I read this aloud on YouTube.
Marty Nemko is a career and personal coach, and author of 36 books including A Dose of Reality. You can reach him at mnemko@gmail.com
