Chalk Dust Torture is the reason I quit a job I hated

Sam PetrossianWent to one show in 1994 to be polite. Never recovered.1 min read

"Can't this wait 'til I'm old? Can't I live while I'm young?"

That is not a subtle lyric. It is not a good lyric, arguably. It is a rock and roll bumper sticker and I do not care, because I heard it at a show in the fall of 2012 in the middle of eighteen months of the worst professional misery of my life and it landed like a diagnosis.

I gave notice on a Tuesday. My manager asked what changed and I said "perspective," because "a song" felt insane to say out loud in a conference room.

It was a song. It's fine. Sometimes the bumper sticker is correct.

Did this land? Upvotes are how a story climbs the chart.3 comments

3 comments

  1. Otis Kingsley

    This is the best thing I've read on here. Thank you for writing it down.

  2. Gordon Deitrich

    The detail about the poncho is what makes this. Perfect.

  3. Cass Whitfield

    I've told a version of this story badly for twenty years. You told it right.

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