'Cause Pigs can Fly

One reason I hate discussing with other people the books or authors I love is because they will either tell me they hate that book or author or that they read that book ages ago. That second answer, that's what I really hate. It doesn't matter at all, but the way they stress on the 'ages ago' makes it seem like they are showing off. It's as if you can only enjoy or truly understand a book if you read it ages ago. I'm just beginning to really understand books. There are still so many stories and poems I don't understand but I feel like present-me understands books more than, say, fifteen-year-old-me. I know that if I read Haruki Murakami when I was fifteen, I wouldn't have really understood the story or the stories wouldn't have had such an impact on me. Thus while I'm just beginning to really understand stories, it's only now that I buy books that I want or have heard of. When schooling, I did manage to collect my pocket money but I could...

I’ve been at The Nation since the beginning of 2013 and I’ve always been a freelancer. However, this doesn’t mean I rarely go to office and mostly work from home. I don’t make much use of the ‘free’ in freelancer. Instead, I’m usually at office from 8.15 to 5.15 (thanks to the staff transport van) at least four days a week. From time to time I’ve been asked if I want to join full-time, which to me means signing a contract, being tied to the company (a thought more terrifying than marriage) and having to answer to the company. This is how I look at full-time employment in general and in the two jobs (three months as a substitute assistant librarian at school and 2 ½ years at The Nation) I’ve never signed any sort of document that will tie me to either place. However, I was in my teens when I started working and as a teenager I obviously shouldn’t be signing any contracts. But I’m 21 now and suddenly I’ve been pushed into the adult world where I’ve been forced to think about pe...