We've Been Liberated

The beginning of the end of "The Oppression Economy"

Image design by Lisa Hayes-Minney

I began freelance tutoring in December with tutor.com. Although I had some experience with education platforms, I still faced a learning curve, and the application, interview, vetting, background, and approval process took almost six weeks. In addition, I was far, far from having any kind of disciplined groove.

A liberation comes from not being tied to local career/work options and attitudes. Since moving here in 1999, I have always been ahead of the game seeking out remote work. My first year here (24 years ago), I worked remotely for the third-largest magic and novelty wholesaler in the world, based in Chicago -- via Dial-up, and sold company returns online via eBay.

I produced and published a monthly print magazine via Frontier "High Speed" (cough) for ten years.

But during the pandemic, remote and online work, content production, team management, desktop publishing -- everything basically online -- not only caught up to me here in central West Virginia but jumped way ahead. Online stores, magazines, newsletters, courses, etc. advanced by leaps and bounds, and compared to my experience in decades prior, became streamlined and almost easy.

Now we have Starlink Internet. (Thank you Mr. Musk. We waited four years for it to be available here.)

Tutor.com connects me with students K-graduate level across the nation. I can work any hours, "float" on call, and schedule "office" hours. I tend to start work around 11 p.m. Why? Because West Coast clients pay higher prevailing wages. :-) (Side Note: West Virginians and WV students have free access to online tutoring through the WV Public Library system. Ask your local librarian.)

It almost feels miraculous. Working one-on-one with a client in southern California at 1 a.m. Or with a student who needs help with an online college course while serving in the military in Guam. Or a doctorate student working on his dissertation in New Mexico. All while doing stretches on my yoga ball chair, wearing my pajamas and no makeup, with my dogs at my feet.

For me, it's the coolest freakin' thing ever. What I wanted to do ten years ago which was technically and logistically impossible, now awaits me with easy access as I return to freelancing.

I was made for remote work, and I thank God it has finally become:
a. technically possible with available internet services,
b. commonly available and accepted,
c. with technology that makes it super easy.

This morning, around 2 a.m. (my time), there was an African American woman at her California kitchen table, surrounded by papers and books and coffee, squealing and yelling, "Thank you Jesus!" again and again because she finally understood the core concepts and requirements of analysis in academic writing.

Never before, nor again will I ever encounter a person so excited about the three E's of academic support: Evidence, Explanation, and Example.

I laughed so hard that I woke Frank and the dogs.

That my friends, is the ultimate joy of teaching. The lightbulb moment.

Me in my jammies with my dogs in Podunk West Virginia. Her in her jammies with her cat in California. Two lone women, one urban and one rural, on different sides of the country, of different races, ages, backgrounds, and pet preferences, celebrating an understanding of the core principles of academic support.

All at a pay rate more appropriate to my education and experience.

It's a miracle, I tell you. Remote work is a blessed miracle. I'm released not only from limited rural opportunities but also from man-made construction of business hours, commuting, committees, fashion, hair, and make-up. I am (almost) comfortably me again. I can finally balance work and home, finally garden, homestead, create, AND work. So many social constructs of our cultural past and present just fall away and become… Irrelevant.

I love it so much outside the box, I'm launching my own online school to share my writing, homesteading, self-care, holistic, and incidental knowledge and experience. And I can ship my art to appreciative purchasers worldwide. Ten years ago (for me and central West Virginia) this would have been:
impossible with the internet available,
costly,
time-consuming, and
unprofitable due to a lack of available and interested online students.

I remember when former governor Joe Manchin changed the state's tagline to "Open for business." (This was before WV was a right-to-work state, before reliable internet, when he urged business models in higher education that have brought higher ed to the struggling entities they are now.)

Now, all these years later, low-employment counties like Calhoun have some of the highest percentages of new businesses registered. None of us are limited to local work, local employment, or local consumers any longer. Nor are outsiders who already work remotely kept at bay due to the limited local internet options.

Finally, West Virginians can be truly open for business. If this is the silver lining of the Covid pandemic, I'll take it. If remote work, telehealth, increased online education, AI assistance, and access to higher wages are the benefits of our struggles, fears, and grief, I gladly accept them.

This is the beginning of the end of what has been called "The Oppression Economy," in which elite institutions expand their wealth and power through theft, exploitation, and exclusion. Already, what we face has been dubbed a "Liberation Economy."

This is the time of my renaissance, of OUR renaissance. A time when opportunity, possibility, and solutions are available and accessible. When local and worldwide combine, bypassing the restrictions of geography, politics, prejudice, and typical cultural limitations. A time when the "working class" starts working for themselves.

It’s time to stop applying the old boundaries, and focus on old problems.

I "launched" Two-Lane Renaissance three years ago. It took a year to shake off the pandemic, another to depart from traditional employment, and a third to process the past and the present to find my footing again. For a while there, I lost direction and motivation, and that's okay. We've all had a lot to process in the last several years, and election years are always especially challenging.

But remember: No matter the election results, the local job market, our present struggles, or the limitations of our cultural past, we are being liberated. Old ways of thinking are no longer predominant, and all the rules of the game have changed.

I, for one, am relieved.

It's a beautiful Sunday. The sun is shining and there's a soft breeze, and the hills are that almost-neon green that comes with spring. I think I'll take my laptop out to the porch swing to work today. Maybe I'll work with a student from Texas, or New Hampshire, or Florida. And maybe I'll light another lightbulb in a mind far, far away.