street smarts! with steph veerman
What a week. What a month. What a year. I can’t stop thinking about Nevada. I feel like Nevada is an exam that sits on my professor’s desk waiting to be graded. Between me and you, I don’t even want to see the results of this exam because I barely studied, but also maybe God pulled through this one time? Either way, the professor has no intention of grading it and probably forgot there was an exam in the first place.
What even is Nevada? Most people know it for the casinos and strippers, but I know it from when the cast of the TLC show “Sister Wives,” made their big move from Utah to Nevada. I kept up with that so hard at the age of 14. I am still pissed there isn’t a show called “Brother Husbands” because I have a nice selection of men that I feel would do very well in that situation. Also it would help with the indecisiveness a lot. One big family.
Anyways, to distract me from what has been going on, I have been reflecting about this time last year. Last October I had just secured a big girl job making smoothies in the heart of Boston. This is a romanticized way of saying I had to mop floors and scoop bananas to earn minimum wage that was spent before it hit my pocket. However, this job taught me a lot.
One time I was alone with my boss working a Tuesday night. I never worked Tuesday nights but filled in for someone else on this specific day. My boss stepped out to take the trash out, and as soon as she left, a large man in a bullet-proof vest holding a gun walked in, looked me in the eyes, and said “I’m here for the money.” Okay. So as a 19-year-old girl thinks, I assumed I was getting robbed. There was no way in hell I was about to risk my life for the Juice Press. I want children. I have hopes and dreams. I then went to hand him the safe, and right as I did my boss walked in and yelled “Tom!! How are you?!” WTF. You two know each other? Apparently in corporate businesses, a guy from the bank comes once a week to collect the money and his name is Tom and he doesn’t introduce himself and he holds a gun the whole time. My dad has always said, “Steph. Your brother is very books smart but you are streets smart and that will take you far.” Well Dad, I have some news for you.
That one instance changed my life. I have always wanted to be a city mouse but maybe, deep down, I belong in like Iowa. I am not sure what is in Iowa but I bet there’s not a lot of men with guns that fake rob your minimum wage job. Or maybe, just maybe I belong in Nevada. Until then, I’ll dream of living in New York City as I sip my vodka soda on a rooftop bar resuming my part as the main character.