Ten Years From Now

Introduction

In this essay, I am going to try and incorporate two more elements.

Structure

The following structure is in use.

Intro: Landscaping & Window washing

Body: Caretaking

Elder care & Childcare

Takeout Food

Conclusion:

“Best Job”

Essay

The following essay is meant to be a model.

When I was teaching here in 1990, we pushed many of our students to go to college. If they didn’t go to college, we aimed them at the trades. Little did we know that the big money to be made in the last seven years wouldn’t come from construction, but from landscaping and window washing. When we looked into the future, we assumed that people would continue to do the chores around the house instead of paying people big money to do it for them.

The summer people morphed on us. At the dawn of the decade, we saw summer people as being rich families (“The Greenwiches”)who came out for the whole summmer. Instead, the American workplace changed and the rich families began to rent houses for two weeks. In addition, the very rich retirees and CEO’s (“The Pompanos”) built showplaces for their two weeks. These people didn’t want to spend an afternoon mowing the lawn or washing the windows. They would rather play golf.

In the next ten years, I suspect that that trend will continue; caretaking, in one form or another, will become the hot job on-island. Property Caretaking has always been an interesting sidelight for us. Some rich guy pays us $60 a month to walk through his house and see that the heat is on. However, as the Greenwiches and the Pompanos spend less time here, they will want more things done for them. The caretaker will be responsible for hiring cleaners, window washers, and landscapers.

Caretaking for people will remain hot as well. The elder Greenwiches will not want to spend their entire vacation dealing with the little ones. Instead, they will look for camps, clubs, and day-care to fill their child’s days while the Mr. and Mrs. go to lunch at Sankaty. In a different light, the Pompanos won’t want child care, but elder care. They are going to need visiting nurses and special helpers in order to make that lunch at Sankaty. More of Mr. & Mrs. Greenwich will retire in those years, will become the Pompano’s and will want more elderly services. A bridge table in the Pacific Club won’t cut it.

It appears that everybody will be busy in the upcoming ten years. The Greenwiches and the Pompanos will work at having fun and we will work for them. Noone will have time to make lunch and dinner. As a result, take-out food will remain a hot business on-island. The lines at Something Natural and Taco’s Tacos will remain long.

All of these are good jobs, but which one is best? To me, the best job is the one that is interesting, has reasonable hours, and adequate pay. All three of these jobs fail this test, unfortunately. Caretaking is boring while child care and take-out have impossible hours. So, while I won’t make a fortune, I will stay in teaching.

 

 

Questions

Read the previous essay and answer these questions.
      1. What does the author pick as the three booming occupations?

        2.  

      2. How does the introduction work?

        3.  

      3. The author uses a literary trick called synecdoche: where you use one thing or name to stand for a large group of people. Where does he do this?

        4.  

      4. The author also uses a rhetorical question. Underline that question.

        5.  

         

      5. What are the bigger changes to the island (or American society) that will cause these occupations to flourish.