It’s October- Yay! Although fall began a little while ago, I can’t help but feel like I am entering a new season in my career. It feels like a season of change-the preparation for the long winter before the eventual bounty of the spring. I can say; I welcome this change, because I know it leads to something good.
What changes have begun for me? Well, first of all I began working as a part time ESL conversation teacher. There aren’t many better ways to gain an appreciation of your language, than to try and teach it to foreign speaker. I admire my students. They are dedicated to learn English and try very hard to pronounce the words I frequently take for granted. I mean, seriously, why don’t we pronounce it “Die-Ah-Bee-Tez”?
I’ve also had the opportunity to go back to my writing roots this week, as I took some journalism assignments. In case you didn’t read my bio I started as a news reporter. Actually, it was a freak occurrence that writing professionally even crossed my mind. A daughter of a business consultant, I had been writing pamphlets, brochures, flyers and newsletters since I was 12. My father did not know how to operate the DOS computer sitting in our spare room and my mother was too busy teaching school. So I became the go-to person for my dad’s freelance business career-reluctantly typing up promotional materials my dad had scribbled and drew on a scratch sheet of paper.
After a few years of being an unpaid typist, I began to understand the logic behind his writing. But I also began to detest it. In my 14 year old brain, I swore I’d never write anything for a business again.
Take a moment to reflect on the obvious irony.
Well, just like I eventually gravitated back to what I knew with copywriting, journalism reared its head. With its attractive package it dragged behind it, long hours, OCD moments of scribbling on notepads in the middle of the night and the overwhelming urge to ask a lot of questions. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a reporter. But for the seven pieces I am working on this week, I have already spent 15+ hours researching and interviewing. I haven’t even started writing yet! It’s hard, time consuming and many times, without profit. It’s a love-hate relationship that I wouldn’t trade for the world- $1,000,000,000 maybe – but not the world.
Writing My Way Up 