Changes

Work can be great, a pain, inspiring, full of drudgery….but it does play a major role in one's life.

Okay, in my life.

I've had a variety a jobs in my life before I found my niche: Writing.

In my niche, I worked as an employee, a temporary worker, a contractor hired by a contracting company, an independent contractor, and a freelancer. Whew, what a list!

I am proud to be making a living working with words. Professionally, I've been a technical writer, training writer, precis writer, and web writer. Writing is also my hobby, via stories and a draft of a few novels.

For me, nothing is better than working with words (although music comes in as a close second!).

And maybe you come for this pictures....

Writing for myself (as opposed to writing professionally, which involves crafting someone else's ideas into an easy-to-understand written form), is why I started this blog - to write and to maybe find an audience for my writing. I hope I have started to collect readers interested in my words.

Steps on my professional writing-career journey were sometimes positive and sometimes negative. There were days teeming with challenges; others dragged their doldrum feet. Some jobs were over-the-top rewarding; others...less so. Most ended in one way or another. Some restarted, some didn’t. But each had a variety, something that I really liked about my jobs.

In some career positions, I learned what I should avoid, that is, what didn't fit for me. (AKA: Yuck! Don't make me do that!) If I have any advice for you, it's don't stay in a job or a place that makes you miserable. Better times/things are out there in this big, big world.

I recently was let go from my job, mainly due to cutbacks and restructuring. (AKA: money. Lack thereof.)

That's life. Nothing personal, right?

The ending of a hike...or "running into a wall" :)

Endings are always bittersweet. Each can be a time to mourn, reflect, come to terms with, and (sometimes eventually) accept. They make me readjust, to take the time to examine the pros and cons of a position, a company, an industry. I try to enhance my perspectives, update my resume, and look for rays of sunshine piercing the clouds. And I try to stay out of "the woe-is-me-I'm-outta-work" trap.

I've had endings that reduced me to a heap of tears and self-pity. This ending was definitely not that. It did leave me feeling resigned: accept it and move on. ["resigned"!? No pun intended! honest.]

This recent ending - the closing of this employment door - could turn into a new beginning, like stepping from under a tangle of trees into a clearing lit by beams of sunlight. I'm hoping this new ending leads me somewhere exciting. I'm game for whatever transpires. I'll keep you posted.

Rays of hopeful sunlight...

Serendipity will step up. Shitty things might happen, but they too will be something I pass through and learn from: I expect I'll wander about on those metaphorical sunny warm days...

AND

... other figurative days will be blizzards with frigid winds buffeting my face as I trip through the dark.

Each type of day eventually comes to a close. The planet turns. Life moves on.

So will I.

I hope you do too.