This is Not My Dream Job
🚀 Get yer wallet ready: Our Go Fund Me launches!
Back in ye olde 1997, when I was 17 and applying for universities (I was a teenager in the 90's kids! ask me anything), a "trick" the guidance counsellors taught us was to apply as a specific major instead of applying as "undecided" (which was the most popular major chosen on applications). Apparently it was supposed to increase your chances of being accepted. I was a straight A student. I was good at the things I applied myself to, I was good at taking tests, good at doing what I was told. It was a time where I felt like I could try my hand at something that I had an interest in: earthquakes.
I love me a good earthquake. I've been in several. Mother Earth simply rolls over in bed and reminds you of who's in charge. My parents would regularly take me and my sister to the California Science Center in LA, which had a fake earthquake platform and it was delightful. If you've never been in one, basically the ground turns into a gigantic waterbed and your mortality jumps into your throat. Duck and cover - and everything was ok. I've never been in a devastating earthquake though, and I know it's not funny - but I was, and still am, just fascinated by them.
So while applying I thought, "aw heck - shoot for the moon!" (Or is earth more appropriate here?) Maybe I could be a seismologist. So I applied to UC Irvine and UCLA in their environmental engineering programmes, and to UC Berkeley as a geologist major.
I was accepted into all three (see: tiger mom + workaholic immigrant dad) and decided to go with the one that was furthest away from home: Cal Berkeley. I was going to study rocks!
Sadly my dreams were soon crushed by the hydraulic press that is reality: while I loved mapping the Hayward Fault through Berkeley Memorial stadium (section KK has a fabulous visible split showcasing fault creep), studying rocks was kind of boring. The most impressive thing I learned was studying how another kid flipped his pen around his fingers, and I taught myself how to do the same. And when they held a job fair, the only representatives there were oil and gas corporations, hungry for young malleable 24k gold minds, ones that could be enticed with a large steady paycheck in return for selling your poor environmentalist's soul. I changed majors later that year.
I tell you this story because I'm struggling right now.
Much like how I didn't want to study earthquakes only to work at Shell/BP/Exxon, I didn't start LBK to fix your bike for you. I didn't get into bikes to answer emails all day, or spend hours (days!) on the phone with HMRC. I didn't get into this to become a manager.
If you told me these were the things that I'd have to spend the majority of my time doing, I wouldn't have started at all. But 12 years ago I was young, foolish, and idealistic - I wanted to teach you about bikes, I wanted to empower you with knowledge, I wanted to change the world.
A student in one of my classes a couple months ago said "I wish I had your dream job!" and I awkwardly laughed."Be careful what you wish for," I said. My response wasn't a good sign.
I've gone through burnout twice in the last 12 years with LBK. I've since learned to recognise the signs and to catch myself before I'm in too deep. I'm getting singed as I type this, so I know that the time is right to do something different. I can feel it in my gut, and if these last 12 years have taught me anything, it's to trust my gut. I'm done with deferring to male authority figures in the workshop.
MY gut is saying to close the repair workshop and reopen the DIY space.
Reopening the "Do-It-Together" workshop is where we can refocus for our future and adapt to a tumultuous economic landscape. People love coming into the DIY workshop and classroom - they’re excited to learn something new. When they come to the repair workshop, they’re sad when we hand them a bill. I know where I’d rather be.
The first time around, I was making it up as I went along, discovering what worked and what didn't work along the way. I made a lot of mistakes. A LOT. But those mistakes are incredibly valuable knowledge and I can use this information to guide the rest of the team: Amie, Silvi, and Jamie.
And this is where you come in, dear reader.
Your £10 will go a long way to supporting a different kind of bike workshop. One that has women and non-binary people in leadership positions, one that wants you to ask questions, one that’s going to help you take care of your own bike.
We're not going to hide behind the curtain and fix your bike for you anymore, we're going to lift that curtain up and show you how it all works. And then we're going to share our tools with you so that we can fix-it-together.
WE CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU
We’ve got the brains, but you’ve got the booty - not only do we need to buy new tools, we need to buy time: to clean, to organise, to build - both online and off.
We are looking to raise £15k. That means if just half this mailing list pitched in at least £10 each, we'd reach our goal in no time. (Please consider being part of that half 🙏)
If you can't give at this time, could you do us a solid and please forward this email to a friend who might be interested in what we do? Or share it via your social media channels? Pretty please with a cherry on top?
And if you can do both (give and share) we'd be ever so grateful.
Word of mouth is still the most trustworthy form of advertising, and is the number 1 way people hear about us.
Stay tuned for upcoming newsletters outlining the vision we have for our future.
So is this my dream job? I'm not sure yet - it's certainly not easy, but nothing worth it ever was. I do think I'm getting close though, and I have you to thank for that. Thank you so much for your support all these years; we hope to support you right back.
Give us the chance to create a different type of business, and help us create the kind of world that you want to live in.
BOYCOTT EUROVISION
It’s Eurovision week, and this year’s contest has made it plainly clear that the event is being used as a normalising vehicle for Israel.
Entrants have been told to ‘remove any political symbols’ from their costumes, with Swedish entrant Eric Saade, of Palestinian descent, being reprimanded for wearing his father’s keffiyeh on his wrist.
Obnoxious organisers are bending over backwards to safeguard Israel, while the IOF closed border crossings to the outside world and continue to bombard Rafah.
Swede Lotta Backman has created a petition and signposted email addresses for the organisers to make your opinion known.
The official BDS (Boycott/Divest/Sanctions) page has more information on why we should boycott Eurovision.
THINGS I ENJOYED READING
“…it has been heartwrenching, in the face of so much senseless death, to observe the limitations of some people's humanity and solidarity. Because I know, for instance, that many of the folks now crying out for law and order in college campuses probably uploaded a little black square onto Instagram back in 2020; maybe they even briefly added a cheeky "#BLM" to their bios. A tiny fist emoji, too — power to the people (for a little bit and so long as nothing really changes). All of it performative, yes, but a performance of solidarity does at least tell me that the actor in question knows what the right play is — when an audience is watching.
But I suppose all performances must eventually end.”
- Clara, Hmm That’s Interesting
That’s all for now friends.
On a personal note, my partner and I are looking for a lodger, so if you know someone looking for a quiet bike-friendly place to live with a garden and cat, here’s the link.
I leave you with Macklemore’s pro-Palestine music video, one of the few celebrities speaking out against the genocide. Youtube have hidden it away so you might have to go through a few clicks to see it.
Ride on,
Jenni x
ps. That link to donate again is here!