Work

Last year, my parents – who are sainted beings – convinced me to resign from a retail job that I’d held for almost two years in order to focus fully on writing my novel. I was extremely resistant to this idea at first. I don’t like to quit. I also don’t like to feel as though I’m not contributing to society in a productive manner.

For a few months I was able to focus solely on my novel. I made good progress working with my mentor, the wonderful Kathrin Seitz. (check out her classes. She’s amazing.) But after a few months I needed a change of pace. I needed to get out of my office and interact with people every once in a while. I got a new job working at an art gallery, very part-time (only one day a week) to satisfy my need to feel useful to the world. I enjoyed this job, working with art, educating people about the art and the artists and all the work involved in creating the pieces, but I still felt somewhat under-utilized.

And then in mid-summer, I got a job offer that actually utilizes skills I’ve worked hard to cultivate – a technical writing job with administrative responsibilities. I wasn’t sure if I could do all of the aspects – such as running conference calls and keeping all the callers on task – but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from taking the opportunity. And it’s been really great. It’s exactly the type of job I’d imagined getting once I graduated from college – a technical writing job that allowed me enough time to simultaneously work on my book. And I’m earning enough money to put aside some savings so that maybe I can move out of my parent’s house some time in this decade (or pay back the student loans that I owe for my semester and a half at Smith).

Over the past two weeks, I’ve come to the realization that even if it is in a rather round about and non-traditional  way, I’ve achieved a goal that I set for myself in high school. All the failure and inadequacy that I’ve felt surrounding my dropping out of college has suddenly lifted. And I want to thank my boss, Vicki Worden, for giving me this opportunity and for hiring me based on my abilities and not based on how many diplomas I’ve earned. Thank you so, so much.

And thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog continuously, even though for the most part it’s a series of rambles and rants.

Thank you.