Tracey Hoxter, 49, is an office assistant in Morgantown Health Right Free Clinic, which offers support for people from different walks of life in community. He works almost 11 hours a day (especially on Monday), from 7:30 a.m to 6:30 p.m, with few breaks. Even if there is time for he to catch a breath, it is so short as to have one cigarette.
But as a routine person, Hoxter well organizes his schedule all the time, keeping himself energetic, no matter how busy he is. According to him, his current job covers a wide variety of things to help people in the community, including needle change, detoxing treatment, food or shower aid, etc. The main duty is scheduling, like keeping doctors schedule straight, patient scheduling, etc.
And he feels responsible and proud to do that, same as the attitude towards his two previous jobs, broadcast journalist and security officer. These three seemingly divergent jobs constitute his whole career. Yet they are tightly close and can be attributed to one belief — “try my best to help people in different ways”. One of good examples is that when he was a broadcast journalist (DJ), he managed to stop a girl (an audience) suiciding. After the first job, he switched to be a security officer, establishing a security company in Morgantown. He offers the protection service for different clients in community. This belief of accountability is spontaneously influenced by his growing environment, since both his father and old brother are police officers. However, there is one difference between his family and him. “For the policy work, there are too many grey areas.” That he is tired of bureaucracy as well as the belief of justice makes him become who he is, and makes him select his career.
Hoxter and his ex-wife divorced few years ago, and now he is living with his father, the retired police officer. According to him, the priority is to take care of his father, and that is why he chose to go back to work in Morgantown. Sometimes he takes a visit to his brother, who also lives in town, and shoots the breeze with him. As there is nearly no social life for Hoxter, they are seen as his best friends.
Hoxter used to be seen as workaholic, working around 12 or 13 hours a day. As a result, he didn’t have too much time to spend with his two children, one daughter and son. But he endeavors to accompany them, and the children never complain about that, which starts kids on the path towards independence and helps shape their ability to cope and handle life without parents.
With cigar smoke swirling nearby, Hoxter took a deep breath. Seeing people continuously walk into the clinic, he stamped his butt on the ground, and stepped into the door. It is Wednesday, and his job of this day is to check and keep a record of all medical apparatus and instrument. “That is the least I can do to help them,” he said.
Shot and Written by Chris (Junyang) Hu
Junyang Hu 