Communist Work Experience

‘Did you not have a Saturday job or something?’ asked the careers woman kindly. ‘Just think, anything at all, just so you can put it on the application form.’

I looked at her and saw myself reflected in her horn-rimmed glasses. My hair too long, my jeans too marbled, my accent unfamiliar. The Berlin Wall had come down the year before. It would be a few more years before Britain looked east for plumbers and nannies, and English ears became accustomed to our steely consonants.

‘Anything?’ I asked in confusion.

In Aeon, Elena Seymenliyska wrote about her “communist work experience,” and her experience applying for her first job after she moved to the U.K. from Bulgaria. It’s lovely.

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