holy shit are you actually forklift certified!?
yes 😂 I can also operate one of these (this photo sadly doesn’t give you much of a sense of scale unless you look at the driver’s seat. those wheels are almost 5 ft tall)
alright, so, last year I moved back to my home state (Oregon) and restarted my life via what I could carry in two suitcases and the good graces of my best friend’s parents who let me crash at their place.
I had no car and needed work, and conveniently there was a landscaping supply company within walking distance. I thought to myself, “I hate retail jobs and have always wanted to work outdoors, I bet this could be fun!” so. I applied and got an interview
now, all of this sounds very unremarkable until you realize one crucial fact: I am going into this interview as a transgender blue-haired twink. I literally look like this
somehow, I fail to properly think about this fact until I arrive on the premises and am surrounded by blue-collar, salt of the earth trucker men, and all of them are looking at me like I’m a flamingo escaped from the theme park. suddenly, I decide I have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting this job
.... luckily, it turns out that I am an extremely resilient snowball
somehow, through the sheer dumb luck of the universe and the joys of the absurdity of life... I get a second interview. they ask me to get an Oregon driver’s license so I can be put on the company insurance plan. I run into my future boss at the DMV and he smiles at me and claps me on the shoulder. I get officially hired that very week......... as a trans guy with shoulder-length blue hair and the build of the aforementioned flamingo
and......... it ends up being AMAZING. I mean obviously, there’s some confusion about me at first - I had to apply under my deadname, and I’m only a year on T so I don’t pass very well even without the hair. BUT... I’m a hard worker and good on a forklift, so after a handful of “what should we call you?” questions and a single “so... are you a girl or a boy? sorry - this is all so new to me”... I am officially One Of The Dudes.
I get nicknamed right off the bat (”Blue”). I get invited to weekly trivia night at the bar (it turns out that true gender euphoria is having a 6-foot tall bearded trucker man tell you “I don’t care if you’re gay, trans, or whatever - you can drive a forklift good and that’s what matters”). the guys in the truck workshop help me with my car troubles when I do eventually get a car. I end up being very useful for crawling inside of small spaces, like inside the lapidary (stone and gem work) saw and behind storage areas. they also find out I’m good at power washing and they fight over who gets to have me wash their rigs next. all in all..... I’m made to feel welcomed, valued, and even a little loved.
anyways, here’s some more pics:
me in the saw:
Clifford The Big Red Truck, freshly washed (all the trucks had names):
operating the Komatsu:
when it came time for me to quit, everybody signed a goodbye card for me and my boss gave me this sick obsidian and turquoise knife:
also I ended up with biceps like this
SO......... moral of the story? Instant Landscaping in Bend, OR is trans-inclusive and has competitive starting pay. also anything is possible I guess
I keep thinking about this job in light of the ‘people don’t want to work anymore!’ complaints from companies...... I loved working here despite it not being my passion (I’m anti-lawn and most of what I did was selling lawns) because I was respected, paid $16 an hour, and given a good work schedule. like....... I’m a queer trans artist currently wearing rainbow leggings and dyed pink hair, and my favorite job I’ve ever done was driving forklifts and tractors and doing manual labor - BECAUSE THEY TREATED ME WELL
people DO want to work. they just don’t want to suffer for it
