Meeting workers in New York City

By Sara Gillooly

Brian from Golden Krust on West 14^th Street, who prefers anonymity, said that, “working at a restaurant is very hard and very long.” He feels as if the work there is too much and tends to be boring. Brian has worked at Golden Krust for about a year and previously worked at another restaurant. His normal work schedule is during the day, which he much prefers to the night shift that he used to work at his previous job.

Brian’s education stopped after high school when he moved to America from Jamaica with his entire family. His family thought moving to America would bring new opportunities, which Brian confirmed it did; jobs were incredibly hard to come by in Jamaica. Brian is married with two children, ages eighteen and nineteen. He hopes that one day he will be able to work in other types of jobs in order to try new things.

Brian explained the hardships of transitioning from living in one country to another. In his words, “life is hard everywhere but here you have to do things you’re not used to and it’s different living in a modern first world country. There was a definite transition

period”. Now that he’s more adjusting, Brian is happy to be living in America with his family. He lives in a community surrounded by other Jamaican people in the Bronx. He eventually plans to move out of the Bronx, but for now that’s where he plans to live . When the right time presents itself, Brian hopes to travel back to his home in Jamaica. He mentioned that, “exposure to other places is good. Life is like a big college if you open up your mind. You learn a lot of things”.