Sera Miles

This is a huge topic, and I cannot do it justice in one post written late in the evening. But here’s a start.

I worked on the phone and with clients, providing domination, submission, and fetish exploration. While I did this work, I saved money to move 2,000 miles, to attend graduate school. I got a full package for school, which included a teaching assistantship. Said assistantship paid pennies, so I kept working. I incurred no debt that lasted after graduate school. (The debt I incurred in school had more to do with my shopping habits than with lack of funds. What’s a girl to do when she lives in a crappy apartment and drives a beat-up car? Buy Michael Kors, of course!)

It was, at times, difficult to manage being a student, a teacher, and a sex worker (plus a part-time editor). Mostly, it was difficult to manage my time. When I went to a school event, I felt guilty for not being available to answer the phone and make money. When I stayed home for the phone, I felt like an errant member of my grad school community. This is all to say that I did not feel torn or fractured or secretly divided. I was just me, doing my thing(s).

Sex work gave me money. Access. It allowed me to have a much more lavish lifestyle than most graduate students manage. I worked a lot, obviously–but not nearly as much as my counterparts who struggled at part-time retail jobs. After all, I made at least $40 an hour on the phone, and more for an in-person.  On a Friday night, I would often do a three-hour call, bank $120, and then join friends for drinks–and not worry about how much said drinks cost.

Sex work thus gave me time. Time for my schoolwork. I went to graduat school for writing, and I wrote two manuscripts.

I’ve never been keen on doing research, but I do know that research shows that a high number of sex workers are students. In my view, sex work allows for an even exchange, particularly in the situation of students in sex work jobs. In base terms: the sex worker receives time and money, and both allow her/him to devote more energy to his/her field of study. The client receives whatever it is the client seeks. 

In base terms about me: sex work made my life easier.

Did it ever complicate my life? Sure. I had lovers who couldn’t deal. I felt torn over how to spend some evenings. But really, those complications do not begin to compare to how much that money made my life easier.