Step 1: Brainstorm about a time in your life.

My first pregnancy was a really an interesting time for me. I was 19 and living in the hood. My husband and I lived in one of the worst neighborhoods in Jersey City. I was on Medicaid and food stamps. I was so young and oblivious to the standards of my life that I lived everyday feeling like life was on top of the world. The lack of knowledge and character I had made life blissful. I never saw the danger lurking on the block I lived on. The medical care I was receiving was awful but this was my first baby. What do I know?. My job paid me a few dollars above minimum wage, I thought I was doing well and since I wasnt dirt poor, I felt I had to be grateful. Why did I feel like making 20+ dollars per hour was out of my reach? Why did I feel like 9 dollars an hour was all I deserved? Why didn't I see how bad the healthcare I got for my pregnancy was? Even the one nurse practitioner scolded me for gaining so much weight and not eating enough protein? Eventually, my stepfather’s new girlfriend thought it was a good idea to add me to my stepdads health insurance when I was about 5 or 6 months pregnant. Once the plan was active, I immediately went to a well known gyno that only took commercial insurance as in, he did not accept medicaid. At that time, if you were able to get care from a practice that did not take public assistance, you knew that care was going to be above the standard. I was so excited to be able to get an ultrasound picture every visit. With Medicaid, you were only able to get an ultrasound pic during anatomy screening which was 1 every 3 months or so. At this time, I was practicing to get my drivers license and I was so nervous to drive. I took my drivers test on April fools day. I am 9 months pregnant hiding my belly with a large hoodie. I should have failed but the driver wanted to play his first April fools joke of the day on me. “You didnt pass' ' me: oh nooo really? Instructor: Just kidding April fools! You pass!

Step 2: Choose interesting details

Living in the hood. I have a lot of questions for myself. What made me feel safe enough to move there? This was over 12 years ago so I have to think hard. My husband’s grandfather was the maintenance man of the 2 buildings on Gifford Ave. He lived in one of the apartments as a perk of working for the building. My husband and I, before getting married and moving in together, used to spend a lot of time at his grandmother’s house. We were in and out of the building every other day. We knew most of the tenants. It wasn't the building that was dangerous or even “ghetto”. It was the “night workers” who seemed to be attracted to this particular block. There were drug dealers, gang bangers and drug addicts. They all used to hang out at the bodega on the corner. I guess that bodega defined the block as a whole. The night workers used to walk up and down Gifford ave sometimes. I saw them as human beings so I would say my hellos and good mornings. I saw no danger. “What is everyone talking about?” In the end, they WERE all human despite the career choices they have made so since i treated them with respect, they treated all of us the same way.. I didnt need drugs, I wasnt gang banging, so what did they need to bother me with? Nothing. The reality: My husband’s grandfather was so friendly with everyone on the block that the gang leaders would specifically tell everyone not to mess with him AND his family. They didnt.
I did have morning sickness so that resulted in me losing my job as a receptionist. Writing this prompt is making me think and realize a lot I have never realized before. I worked for 2 Egyptian men who sold car insurance? I honestly do not know what they were doing til this day. All I knew was that I was picking up the phone and transferring calls to them. I also used a typewriter to type out insurance cards. (this was 2010 so IDK why I had to use a typewriter). Most of the time at that job was spent doing absolutely nothing. I played Farmville, read books, and watched youtube. I think they just wanted a pretty face in their office. I wonder if they were doing some shady business and needed a coverup like an office with a receptionist and filing cabinets. One of the man’s name was Nasr. He was so kind. Him and his partner spoke Arabic to eachother, they sounded like they were arguing. But I learned quickly that this was normal talking. Nasr Smoked in the office every single day. He was a muscular man that never stepped foot in a gym. The man could not stop smoking. The smoke dust would cover the desk and computer in one of the rooms. I had to clean it up weekly. When I found out I was pregnant, I could not tolerate the smell and I knew it was very dangerous for me. I also used my pregnancy and the smoke as an excuse to quit because I was soooo sick.
I spent about 3 months sleeping, waking up, eating, sleeping. Because if you're sleeping, you can't feel sick, right? It was at this time I applied for medicaid and food stamps. I was very thankful for the help because I didnt know how to be ambitious. Everyone I knew lived like this so I felt destined to live on state benefits my whole life. Once I felt a little bit better to function like a human being, I began to apply to jobs. I used craigslist which no one used here in Florida. Well anyway, its sketchy. I filled out an application for Sears at NewPort Mall. I had to take a personality test and answer it to ensure I was chosen for an interview. I got an interview. I showed up hiding my small belly. The man interviewed me and liked me. I asked about the pay. He said $7.15. I was shocked. How dare you offer this amount to anyone. It's not a livable wage, not even for me living in the HOOD already. I took the job for the sake of “doing my part for the family”.
Food Stamps were not showing up in my account so I gave up on it. Lets just say I was taking a can of Chef Boyardee to work for lunch and accepted where my life was at and where it was going. I was always hungry but ignored it. There was nothing else I could do about it so why fuss over hunger? I worked in the men’s department where the crickets chirped. I made friends but i can't seem to remember anyone's face LOL. I remember taking the Path train to the mall and my husband would pick me up to go home. In my 3rd week, I got my first check. $240. My husband saw the check and demanded I quit. He could not believe that I was doing all this work and suffering for $240. My morning sickness was not completely gone. On top of that, I was eating a can of puke. So Imagine.
I went back home happy. But I still needed money. I began applying and adjusting my resume. I tried to learn new skills on my own to add on to my resume. I was able to secure an interview at a lunch spot in the same mall. They cooked food not only for the public, but had accounts with large businesses that paid for their employees' lunch. I learned a little Excel from what I taught myself at home, but according to the interviewer, it wasn't enough. She evaluated me by sitting me at a desk beside her and she asked that I entered all the receipt totals on a spreadsheet. I did it well. But she didn't like that I didn't know Excel formulas. I currently run a mental health practice and use excel often. Today, what i'd like to tell that interviewer this: WHOOOO runs a business on excelllll!? She was the one that needed to get rejected from that interview. She was using spreadsheets for all of the accounting. LOL what a moron!!! Considering the time period, I'm sure there were many programs out there that would have cut her excelling time in half. Because of her, I researched how to use formulas. There's always more to learn with spreadsheets but I can make a pretty bar graph if I do say so myself.

Step 3: Look out for good characters

One good character is the nurse practitioner that called me a fat pregnant woman and told me instead of eating waffles and syrup, to eat bacon.
Second good character is my husband’s grandfather who was well liked at his job. He was the maintenance guy at the building we lived which was located in the hood. His story in general makes a perfect character. I would just be rewriting his story and exaggerating a few details.
Another good character was Nasr. He was an Egyptian guy who had muscles and didn't go to the gym. He smoked so much that I was scared for his health and he was very kind to me despite possibly doing shady business that I didn't know about. I would write that he was doing shady business and the receptionist was just a coverup. His plan was to use a naive girl so that when the feds come knocking to question the receptionist, she would honestly say there was no scamming going on. Cuz she was THAT dumb LOL
The girl that interviewed me for the restaurant position who wanted me to know all of excel for 7.15 an hour is another character I could write about. She would def be that anxious girl who refuses medication because she's anxious about taking medication. I would say when she was hiring for the position, she was looking for her identical twin but for cheap. I will write that she ended up not hiring anyone at all because no one was good enough and took it as far as destroying the business for being so judgy.

Step 4,5 and 6:

The large nurse practitioner that called me fat at 6 months pregnant.

The morning of December 5th was not any different from any other day for Rhonda. Rhonda exited the shower with no steam left behind. It is cold outside and a shower more than 10 minutes should definitely fog up a window or two. Except, this shower was a mere 2 minutes. This is the 3rd day in a row Rhonda skipped out on washing major body parts. In her mind, showers are a waste of time. She works for a dead end job at the Medicaid clinic serving the underprivileged “who are all just entitled poor people expecting life to be free living on government assistance,” according to Rhonda.

“Why should I buy a new wig?” she says after placing her 2 year old curly wig on her head. She easily locates her blue scrubs because they are the same ones she wore the day before. She aggressively rubs deodorant in her armpits and heads out the door. As soon as she enters the Medicaid facility, she immediately walks to the menu on the breakroom fridge and calls for a 12 o'clock order of 40 piece wings and potato fries. Her first patient is a 19 year old pregnant woman who looks about 7 months pregnant. Rhonda evaluates her chart and immediately brings up the concern about her patient’s rapid weight gain. Rhonda wasn't really concerned. She was merely deflecting her job-related revulsion onto the patient.

“What are you eating for breakfast?” Rhonda says.

“Waffles and syrup,” The pregnant girl replies.

“You need to stop eating waffles and start eating protein. Like Bacon. You're just 6 months pregnant and are gaining weight way too fast. You look 8 months. You need to get yourself together and take this more seriously.” Rhonda scolds the patient.

“Ok, I will work on that, sorry” The pregnant girl responds with her arms squeezed between her legs sitting on the blue plastic chair. Her husband standing next to her with downturned eyebrows ready to call the nurse a hypocrite.

“May I request to go on maternity leave sooner. I truly do not feel well.” Says the patient.

Rhonda replies with a look of disgust in her face “No, you can work” and immediately rolls her eyes.

Rhonda desires to find a fulfilling job but cannot get out of the bitter funk. She is unmotivated and lazy. She is too focused on letting people know she is tired to put energy on bettering herself. Eventually, she treats a patient so badly that the patient reports Rhonda to the state and Rhonda risks losing her license. Then, a handsome NP named Jared is hired and he analyzes Rhonda for who she is. He has a love interest but gives Rhonda a taste of her own medicine. He begins to talk to her like Rhonda talks to patients. Rhonda eventually learns she is an awful person after Jared stages an office visit with his sister disguised as a pregnant woman. Jared tell the woman (his sister) he is going to call cps as soon as the child is born because she is not able and capable to care for a child. Rhonda listens in to Jared’s office visit and interjects the session to defend the “patient”. Jared reveals that the patient is his sister and tells Rhonda that she treats patients this way all the time. Rhonda begins to better herself but with every effort, she is taken back by new obstacles. She goes to court to defend herself against the patient that filed a complaint against her. Jared shows up in her defense and guarantees that there has been progress.

Kenia Gandarilla

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