Who is Sam Lane?

I ain’t rich.

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Look at your politicians and their backgrounds.  You’ll see a lot of lawyers, business owners, and old money.  Where’s the working class?  Where are the people who know what it feels like to have rent alone eat the better half of your paycheck, or to have to balance three jobs that all have variable schedules?

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I work in inspection and materials testing for construction.  In the past I’ve worked in manufacturing; I used to put on one of those plastic suits, with goggles and a breath mask, to spray on stucco.  I’ve worked for years trying to scrape by as a line cook.  I’ve never owned a house or an expensive car.

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Education

 

I went to KU.  (Sorry, Wildcats.  But if it’s any consolation, most of the certifications for my current job have been through K-State.)  I was interested in everything and took a lot of classes.  This was great for being a well-rounded person, but terrible for student loan debt.  Eventually I settled on a psychology major, focusing on social psychology.  It’s not much for getting a job, but it’s starting to feel very relevant with national politics being what they are right now.

 

Shoutout to KU’s neighbor, Haskell Indian Nations University.  One of my favorite parts of going to KU was the chance to work with Haskell student groups and attend conferences.

 

Why I spent half a year in India

 

Straight out of college I got a job pushing boxes at a FedEx hub.  About a year in, the 2008 financial crisis hit, and most of our work evaporated.  I’m grateful to my boss José for not letting the company cut our shifts in half.  I spent four and a half years working for FedEx, and tried to do the responsible thing and save up some of my paycheck for retirement.  There just wasn’t much money to go around.

 

After four years I had saved about $2,000.  I figured I had two choices.  I could put it away and maybe get two weeks in a retirement home, or I could do something interesting with it now, make some good stories, and maybe just plan on dying two weeks sooner.  I chose to travel.

 

Most of my time in India was spent in Varanasi (Hara hara Mahadeva!), in Bodh Gaya (Om mani padme hum), and Tamil Nadu.  At the end of it I had just enough left over to spend another month in Sri Lanka.

 

Renaissance Festivals

 

Over the years I’ve been a participant in a few different renaissance festivals in the Midwest.  If you’re a regular visitor, you just might have met me.