40. New Jobs

With most people, the idea of a job is something that you go to four or five days a week and work at for a specified number of hours and get paid a specified amount. Most people will stay at one job for years on end and work their way up, if they are lucky, until they land a somewhat higher-paying position with the company and get to have more responsibilities (=headaches) and sometimes supervise (=boss) other employees.

It’s what a lot of people call “security”. Sure, it’s job security, and a lot of people actually look forward to it and are happy in that situation. But not everyone.

Because I grew up with parents who were very conservative in some things (including the concept of job security), I was discouraged from trying to get into “business.” I was actually encouraged to find a company that would employee me and at which I could work until I retired. Or something like that. Switching jobs was frowned upon. But that was only until the 70s.

By the 80s, more experience in a variety of jobs with different employers actually made employees more desirable. It showed flexibility and adaptability. More and more employers were looking around for experience and trained employees whom they could entice (=pirate) from their current employers by offering better salaries, better benefits, better hours, and so on and so forth. This actually saved them a lot in training, because they could get employees who were already trained and had a track record somewhere else.

By the 90s and well into the 2000s, I had fallen into this corporate culture of holding one or more jobs at different companies at the same time, and getting pirated or offered jobs because of my past and diverse experience. I had also begun to like the concept of the extras that additional jobs (=moonlighting) provided. I had begun to seriously consider freelancing, and eventually did quite a bit of that as a consultant and a trainor, delivering workshops and seminars for professionals in different companies. Some of the jobs I acquired on my own. I also hooked up with an old friend (=from the past, not age-old) who offered training consultation services, and pulled in several contracts from that.

By the 2000s, I had a couple of part time jobs and several freelance contacts for training, consultation and writing.

Then I moved to Canada. The new jobs were there, and were a necessity (=necessary evil) just to have enough income to pay for bills. But the idea of being a full time professional writer and artist were always there, and I was looking for every opportunity to transition into a life where I would not need to depend completely on regular employment, except maybe for things like health insurance (group plans from employers were the ideal thing to have, as you pay a very small amount compared to the expected costs from any possible illness forthcoming).

I am still working on getting my paintings out. Once I complete my Diploma in Art, I will be able to push myself more aggressively in that area. (Unfortunately, aggressive is not my number one trait.)

I am working on getting more and more writing done, hence this blog (=platform building) and getting it published, hence this blog and Facebook, and getting independent writing contracts. Eventually, I will get my own manuscripts published (instead of just letting them sleep in my computer and on discs) and move towards becoming the professional writer I have wanted to be all my life. Hence my online publishing of materials I have developed over years, starting with my Quick Grammar Guide.

And the good news? Getting a new writing job! Sure, writing jobs don’t always give you the credit for your work, especially if you’re writing to help someone else develop content, but that’s what writing jobs are about! At least I get to use my mind and the skills I’ve been honing all these years. Finally.

Sometimes I feel like it’s all hopeless and too difficult, especially starting all over again at my age (which no one really believes). Then I get a real booster–like a new job to work on, that is just along the path I am carving out for myself.

Hurrah!