Tracy Jackson

And he said, you're coming home.

So, you know, this is before the Internet.

But so I actually hand wrote two letters to two places in my hometown, sent them.

And they got to two different places, two of the major employers that I knew about to see if they had a summer job.

Otherwise, I wasn't coming home.

And one of them landed in the lap of someone.

Her name was Valerie Austin.

And Valerie got this letter that was handwritten and kind of half-assed letter that I wrote.

And she called me.

She said, Tracy, is this you?

And I was in San Diego.

My hometown's in Northern California.

And I said, yes.

And why are you calling me, Valerie?

You know, and I didn't say it that way, but I was just confused why she was calling me.

This is a woman who went to the same church as I went to.

And

And so she said, I got your letter.

And so she started asking me a few questions to see if I qualified for their internship at State Farm, which was one of the major employers in the town where I live.

And I said, oh, OK.