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How once woman went from being a SAHM of four to a published freelance science journalist |
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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. |
| Prompt: Pick your top ten values and rank them based on how important they are to you. Then, write about the values you chose and if any have changed throughout your life (list included) So today's prompt sends us to a list of no less than 400 values. Wow. Before I start scanning it, let me make a quick list of the ones I know right off the top of my head are on the list: faith, charity (as in, the pure love of Christ), education, family, kindness, service, individuality, gratitude, ?unmovingness? a willingness to stand up for what is right and not be swayed, I'm sure the list will give me a single word lol. That's eight. Now let's look at the list and see which ones jump out at me: achievement, amusement (maybe), awareness, commitment, compassion (that's similar to charity but not quite), consistency, courage, creativity, dependability, determination, discernment, discipline (especially self), efficiency, endurance, excellence, fortitude-maybe that's the long-word one, freedom, growth, holiness, humor, inquisitiveness, joy, learning, motivation, modesty, open-mindedness, persistence, passion, purity, reliability, resilience, resolve (also good for the ??), respect, reverence, self-control, service, sincerity, spirituality, sufficiency, tidiness, trust, trustworthiness, understanding, (did compassion make the list?), virtue. That's more than 10. Okay, let's take the first eight, at least, and then I'll pull out the other two from the list. Actually, let me start by saying that there are qualities that I value more in myself than in others, or at least desire more for myself than others. To some degree, I suppose that I still judge others by how much they do or do not have the same values, but then there are also things that I do and do not expect. It also varies by relationship: for instance, I'm going to value consistency and reliability more from a professional relationship than, perhaps, spirituality or faith. Faith: My faith is a key part of who I am, even if I don't always show it. In other words, sometimes I am good at putting it into action and sometimes I fail, but I suppose that is part of being human. I should expand that to say that I mean more my faith in God than, say, my faith in other people or in the sun rising or winning a million dollars. But, well, I also tend to have faith in other people to be who I expect them to be, perhaps sometimes more than I ought to for a given relationship. My faith in Jesus Christ has made a significant difference to my life; I came from an abusive household and had to work very hard to not repeat the mistakes of my parents on my own children. While I'm glad to take some credit for it, because I did work hard, I also spent a lot of time in prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me to change to something that I never had a strong example of, asking Jesus Christ to literally make me into a new person. Charity: I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often called 'Mormons'. We define charity as 'the pure love of Christ' and think it is key to becoming more like Him. True charity is not just making a donation but to seek out opportunities to serve and uplift. True charity means trying to love your enemies and those who hurt you as well as your friends. True charity means putting yourself in someone else's shoes. This is something I frequently struggle with but am trying to improve. It's hard to tell if a person is acting from true charity or just wants to be known for doing a great thing. The solution, of course, is not to judge at all and to accept it at face value. My boyfriend says that, when he just assumes everyone has positive intentions, it generally makes him happier. Of course that doesn't work all the time, but as far as charity goes, I don't think it's up to me to try to glean what is in other people's hearts. There may be a slight exception in trying to figure out a person that you hope to be with for the rest of your life, but again, that is more along the lines of trying to understand who they are versus who they appear to be. I'm sidetracked, so let's go to the next one. Education: That's a big one. I would also group curiosity, learning, and achievement with it. I've been amazed at how many people have complained about being bored during the COVID lockdown. If I didn't have to worry about work, there are so many things to learn and do, it would make me crazy. Of course, no one can be productive all the time, but I think trying to learn and grow and improve yourself speaks volumes about who you are. One of the goals I set when I started homeschooling was to teach my children to love learning; I think I've only managed that with one out of four. This is going a bit long, and dinner just finished, so I'm going to go. I'd love to hear about what you value, or what you think of my values! |
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