Can We ‘Have It All’?

What a taxicab driver said that made me believe we can

“You can have it all,” ‘they’ say, but a lot of men and women are skeptical.

I was a 30-something-year-old woman, and I didn’t have it all, or much for that matter.

Then I met a taxicab driver who made me believe that yes, eventually, we can have it all.

What I had

I had a bunk in a hostel in Montreal which smelled like the bong that the four male bunkmates from Australia, aged 18–20, had politely offered me a hit from. They had very few $1 bills because they’d used them all up at the strip club before waking me up at 2 a.m. when they poured noisily into our bunk room.

I had plenty of tiredness, but not just from the boys’ late-night arrival. I had just presented at a conference, which had taken a lot of work to prepare for, and I was headed to a job interview in New York, which had taken a lot more work to prepare for.

It wasn’t likely that I would get the job, but I strongly believe you have to go all out trying every time.

I had about one year left in my Ph.D. program, and I had zero fund-age for anything nicer than the hostel because I was a full-time student, living off a stipend and student loans. I grew up broke so you…