No Ordinary Exchange

in the quiet moments

1. You've probably heard people talk about minimum wage a hundred times before, so let's set the record straight: the U.S. minimum wage should be $15. The federal minimum wage is currently only $7.25 an hour, and it has been this low since 2009, despite the fact that prices have continued to increase since then (ex. the average house cost $209k in 2009 and now costs $362k in 2020). It's also worth noting that if the minimum wage had risen at the same pace as productivity since the Vietnam war, it would be over $20 an hour today, meaning $15 should be more than enough of a compromise between (ridiculous) partisan debates. Furthermore, there are 3.3 million workers in the U.S. that are paid below the federal minimum wage; 63% are women, over 50% are Black, and over 60% are Latine. And keep in mind that the people who make less than $15 an hour are also people we rely on to keep our lives running, such as fast food workers, childcare workers, and retail workers. If a fast food CEO makes $23.8 million a year while their employees are only making $16.9k a year, there's a problem. Think about it this way: if McDonald's raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour across the board, the price of a Big Mac would only increase by 17 cents. That's not even a quarter of a dollar! The bottom line? People working at least 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty. The U.S. needs to set a $15 minimum wage. (Condensed from @ soyouwanttotalkabout on Instagram.)

Bonjour vous-autres! I hope you all had a very happy Halloween last week (I was barraged with atla asks on Tumblr, lol, which made it a very unique Halloween experience for me). Idk about y'all, but the talk of Christmas is already driving me up the wall. IT'S NOVEMBER. N O V E M B E R. Anyways. This chapter is a soft one,, you will soon see why. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

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Callum had planned with Rayla that they'd spend most of their homework session studying for the Renaissance History final, since it was the one subject they shared, but those plans changed after their class on Monday. Professor Nguyen had given an update on their life, as promised, as well as their new lecture about the commonalities between the treatment of Renaissance women and women of modern day. While the lecture itself hadn't been the cause of their changed plans, the fact that Professor Nguyen altered the assignment for their final as a result of the lecture was the deciding factor. Instead of a 200-question exam, they needed to write a minimum five-page reflection on that day's lecture.

If Callum was being honest, it was a generous change to their final. Five pages, especially when they had to be double-spaced, was not much. And Callum had been so shocked - probably more than he had any right to be, because it wasn't as if he was oblivious to modern sexism and misogyny - by Professor Nguyen's lecture that he'd written six pages the day the reflection had been assigned. It was a rare instance where words had come easily to him. Rayla and Sonya had done the same, and Callum would freely admit that they'd all cross-referenced each other's notes as they went. But long story short: they'd all finished the first draft of their final basically two weeks before it was due, and had thus arranged that they'd edit each other's papers the following weekend, which would give them plenty of time to make necessary changes and produce polished drafts.

It was a great system, really.

All together, that meant Callum had taken to focusing on his poetry and physics finals, while Rayla sat on his bed beside him and struggled with calculus.

"Why are integrals the worst things in the world?" Rayla complained as she worked out the fifth or sixth practice problem on a worksheet she'd printed of close to twenty. "I remember thinking derivatives were bad." She sighed and shook her head, leaning back on the wall his bed rested against. "I was so young. So naive."

Callum snorted at her dramatic declaration, flipping over a notecard to see if he'd correctly remembered the formula he was quizzing himself on - he had. Sometimes it was very easy to remember his girlfriend used to be a theatre kid. "You only need to deal with them for two more weeks. Then you'll never have to take a math class again."