For a while I knew going back to school was in the cards for me but I wasn’t really sure how, or when, or what. In the final lap of my BA I said to myself: “I’m going to apply to grad school, I’m going to get a PHD, and I’m going to teach English and Writing while writing novels on a comfortable salary, when it’s over.”
Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way for me, the first time around. I went ahead and applied and got rejected by every school I applied to, and that changed my life. This rejection happened around a time when I was working at an independent theatre company, in my final semester which was an equally as influential experience.
When it was all over I took a chance and freelanced, which wasn’t exactly easy, or all that profitable at first but the flexibility of freelancing made me way happier. It allowed me to travel, it allowed me to meet someone special, and it made my life a bit more flexible. Traditionalists might read this and go: “why don’t you just get a ‘real’ job?” I tried that post-school, but no matter how much I try that freelancing just puts itself in front of me, and says: “here’s some money, write.” I know it didn’t lead to bucket loads of money, but the more I give it a shot, the more I learn minor details on how to make it work. I think the real game changer happened though, when I joined the Professional Writer’s Association Of Canada. I was suddenly a hundred times better at fighting for fairness, and understanding the difference between fairness and unfairness.
To be honest this is the most raw I’ve ever been on this blog. That’s miraculous considering that it’s now six years old. I think the real reason I want to mention this is that it’s a new year, and all this has happened in just one year. June 2016 it will be the two year anniversary of when this all began. It’s been a wild ride of a year. So much growing, so much newness, that I feel as if I blinked and suddenly the year was over. I don’t know 100% where it will lead me next but what I do know is that it’s somehow worth it.
I did figure it out in the end, the school thing. Next week I’m starting my part-time night school training in web and print content editing, at George Brown College. I use to love school when I was a child, which is why I went through a period in my life where I thought I’d be a professor/writer. In school I realized that I had mild public speaking anxiety issues and that killed my interest in teaching. Choosing this program has made that “I love school” attitude I had when I was a kid make a pleasant return.I would love to edit other writers’ work professionally, and have always enjoyed doing so. Some of my clients have even asked me to edit stuff for money for them recently.
I guess my interest in helping other writers began in my teens thanks to a librarian named Susan Kernohan who was one of the most influential mentors of my late teen years. Her writers’ group helped me fall in love with not only writing, but helping other writers with their writing.
