%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist |
|
I'm revising this intro after more than 15 years to better reflect my intention When I started this blog in 2004, I was a stay at home mom to two small children, a college graduate with a degree in English and Astrophysics. By 2007, I had four small children, ages newborn, 2, 4, and 6. For several years, Writing.com was how I kept my sanity. This blog began, first as a way of staying connected. Later, when I worked on a novel, I used it to stoke the writing fires as I plotted out short stories and the next step of my novel. Ultimately, I moved my writing preparation to "Invalid Item"  In 2010, I became a single mom who had homeschooled her children for several years. I had a 2, 4, 6 and 8 year old and had never had a "real" full time job, since I was married while in college. Everyone told me that I would have to buckle down and take on a "real" job. Instead, I decided to attempt to live my dream: to make it as a writer. I knew that if I didn't try then, I would never really dive in. I counted my money and set a deadline. If I hadn't began making a decent (defined) amount of money after so many months, I would suck it up and get a J-O-B. After some thought, I decided to play to my strengths. I served an internship at Sky & Telescope magazine while in college and enjoyed writing about space and astronomy. With an astrophysics degree, I thought I would be able to sell myself more easily, and a small niche should be easier to penetrate. It's been about ten years since I was first paid for an article on Space.com. In that time, writing - journalism - has been my primary moneymaker. I've often thought about setting up a blog on my website - www.astrowriter.com - but just haven't gotten around to it. There are a few things I would like to share for those who are interested in scientific journalism in general. Now that I'm back on WDC, there's no reason not to combine the two and use the site blog for that sort of interaction. There are certainly plenty of folks on this site interested in the publication process. So while I'll probably meander around some, that's the intention of of this blog: to share some of my struggles as a published journalist and to help answer oft-asked questions. |
| Write about a time when you or someone you know acted selflessly. What was the motivation and what were the results? Ewww. Well, it seems pretty fail to toot my own horn on the selfless front, so I'm not going to do that. Totally not that nothing springs to mind, it's just that I want to, you know, stay in character. Yeah. I'm going to share a little thing that my boyfriend does. It's not a huge "Selfless Act" capital letters, it's not award winning or even a super big deal. But it's something that he does consistently that I admire. What is this big thing? Typically, when he goes to restaurants, he tips 30%. Now, that seems like a crazy thing to put on a selfless list. I didn't notice it until Thanksgiving. He had been in the hospital for nearly a week after having a stroke, and literally was released on Thanksgiving day. His family was in NC (we're in Georgia, two states south and four+ hours without holiday traffic), so we went out to eat for turkey day. We had had lunch at my mom's, the quintessential Thanksgiving day dinner, but we were hungry again later so we hit up Waffle House. Because it was a holiday, and our server was working, I wanted to make sure he had left a decent tip; before that, I didn't ever really look at the check, but I feel for anyone working on a holiday. Waffle House isn't like, super expensive (though more expensive then I was a kid <grumble grumble>) so we're talking maybe $10 tip or so. It's not a huge difference between that and 20% at that level, but still. As we walked to the car, I brought up the high tip and asked if he was tipping extra for the holiday. He said no, he regularly tipped about 30% because he had previously worked in food service and knows it's a shit job. Since then, I've occasionally checked the tip, not to follow up but because I'm curious how he shifted it based on service. For instance, we once went to Stony River, which is some stupid expensive steak place. The customer service from our waiter was horrible. At one point I grabbed another passing waiter for a water refill, and they began checking in on us. At the end of dinner, we called over the manager and told her that we were impressed, not by our waiter but by the second person who stepped in. She said that they had a large party come in unexpectedly, she had sent some folks home early, blah blah, but there were times our waiter walked right by us without even checking in. All of this to say that, after some of the worst service I've received in a restaurant no matter the price point, he still tipped 20%. Okay so the extra 10% isn't a make or break point for most people. But what makes me hug the guy his attitude. He knows that it's a tough gig even on the best days, and that customers are crap. He was working at Golden Corral while in college, paying his own way through with no help, and living cheap. He didn't do student loans and doesn't do any other debt, so we're talking dirt cheap living. Now, he's over 40 and making good money, and he feels like he should give back because he has the ability to. It's not a guilt thing but more of a compassion thing. I'm rambling, but to me, this is what is supposed to be the "Christian ideal" or the "Democratic ideal." Mind you, I'm not a Dem <don't throw anything> but in both camps, opposite as they tend towards politically, there is often a lot of talk and less follow through with actions. It's amusing to me how many politicians talk about helping the poor and the working class, and yet I can't help but wonder how many of them do something personally to help or give back. Same with Christians. Now, I know that throwing money at a problem isn't always the answer. But as a conservative and a Christian, one of the reasons I think that the government shouldn't be taking care of people is because we should be taking care of people. If every person who was doing okay reached out to help someone doing less well, think about the impact that would make. I don't just mean money. I mean babysitting or helping teach to read or something that showed that someone cared. Of course that's the ideal and who knows if we'll ever get there. Anyway, that kind of ran away from me, but I hope it made sense. I think little things can make a big difference in people's life, especially when they are done consistently. My sweetheart does a lot of other great things; one of my kids actually told me that he was a role model to them, though I'm sworn to keep it secret so don't tell anyone. Even now, when we're all stressing about our jobs and pandemics, I think reaching out to help someone else, even a little bit, can make an important difference in both someone else's life and in our own. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
