Really Big Important Things
I started working at Diesel in the Spring of 2013. I had packed one suitcase and taken a train from Rochester to Boston, one way. I had recently broken up with my boyfriend in NY, and what had at first been amicable turned violent. I was left broken, scared, lost and lonely. My sister and her wife lived in Somerville and they offered to help me get a new start. My sisters’ wife had a connection and before I knew it I was in the fast paced, coffee grinding, avocado throwing whirlwind that is Diesel Cafe. From the moment I stepped onto that floor I was taken under the wing of the Diesel community, I was taught valuable lessons in tolerance and acceptance for things that I had been ignorant to. I heard new music, tried new food and got blissfully lost in the universe unfolding before me. Working at Diesel was all consuming. Your co-workers were your friends, your enemies, your teachers, your lovers, your ex’s, your friends’ lovers, your friends’ ex’s, your sandwich line singers, your drinking buddies, your climbing buddies, your home, your hell, your family. Diesel was love. Diesel was loving everyone for who they were, whether it was your best friend, your manager, your upset customer, your belligerent wanderer, they taught us that everyone deserved to be understood, cared for, empathized with. Things happened at Diesel, really big important things, and really small important things. We got devastating phone calls in the break room, we had first kisses, we put art on the walls and also decorated those walls on Halloween with unconstrained laughter and folly. We built friendships over beers, and sweat and monkey wrenches. We needed those friendships when the worst things happened to us, to our friends. We needed that understanding when our friends grieved the unimaginable. We needed the sticky tables of The Burren to keep us from falling apart, the darkness of Underbones to hide our tears, and the Whiskey of Saloon to revive our hearts. Diesel created a community, made up of not only the souls who labored in her, but of the patrons, the friends, the vendors, the neighbors, the sounds and smells of everything and everyone who inhabited her or surrounded her. Diesel is a ship, who’s soul carries with her the mark of all who have known her, sought shelter on her decks and ridden rough seas under her sails.
Diesel is a ship, who’s soul carries with her the mark of all who have known her, sought shelter on her decks and ridden rough seas under her sails.
The people I found at Diesel are still my co-workers, supporters and closest friends, I see them everyday and everyday I am reminded of the amazing community that was built by those who built Diesel – I will forever be grateful to you for creating and sharing it with me ❤
Diesel Love Stories 