Stretch

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

—Langston Hughes

1 THE STRETCH IMPERATIVE

Jade stepped out on her apartment’s patio to survey the city peeping through the river fog. For the next three weeks, her apartment would be taken over by a couple from Chicago, arranged through AirBnB. Her Uber was ten minutes away, according to the app, to take her on the first step to Cuba. Her editor at the city’s major daily had assigned her to do a story on how the recent trade policy changes impacted medical care practices for both that country and the United States. U.S.-made prescription drugs, once under embargo, were now saving people’s lives in Cuba. Cuban medical practitioners had some advice on public health policy to share in return: Cuba had the highest average life expectancy rates in the region—almost 79 years.

When she graduated ten years ago, Jade had dreamed of traveling to foreign countries and reporting on important stories, but her chosen field of journalism was in great upheaval. Although college prepared her with the fundamental skills she needed, the massive technological changes and industry-wide job hemorrhaging left behind an uncertain career path. In the last ten years, she had held jobs with nine different employers and had dozens of side contracts to gain experience and make ends meet.

Along the way, she realized that, in order to ...