I have a day job –

While I wish I could spend my days writing away, the fact is, I have bills to pay. I am fortunate enough to have a day job I love. I work with amazing people and help to make a lasting impact on future generations.  In my 8 hours at work, I am the numbers person. I deal with spreadsheet and databases and merging it all together. I’ve worked hard to learn new things and be the best I can be. This is normal for me. It’s what I do for everything in my life, including my writing. My mom always says I never let the grass grow beneath my feet. Which I hope is a nice way of saying I’m always growing. Where I am today in my career, isn’t where I thought I would be. My first adult job was retail, which of course I never thought of as a career. It was flexible so I could go to Community College and still make decent money. When I took said classes, majoring in Early Childhood education, “because it seemed fun and I liked kids”, I always thought it would lead me to transfer to a University and get my teaching degree. My twenties were filled with two kids, staying at home being their mom, and subsequently trying to get back into the work field. The recession hit and my husband was laid off, which lead me to a nice stable, “I’ll do it for now, State job.” 

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have anythiing against being a state worker. Much of family worked for the state or still does. I simply didn’t want a desk job, I’ve always been creative and thought for sure all my imagination would be stifled sitting behind a desk all day. The first few years were tough, getting used to the office environment and the new norm of my kids not coming to work with me.  

Then, three years in, I moved to a new job and something happened. I started building my career and was surrounded by “get it done and do it well” kind of people.  I was involved in work I really didn’t understand, but wanted to immerse myself in.  Words I’d never thought of, like bioswale and Urban run-off, became part of my vocabulary. While I am the numbers person, I also love the fact that I play a small part in helping to restore, protect and manage California for not only current generations, future generations as well. To know the work, I’m involved in, will be here long after I’m gone. This was not the path I’d laid out for myself all those years ago when I opened a class brochure. I’m not even sure I would have understood it back then.  

Now being here in the middle of it, its more regrading then I ever could have imagined.  While my plan A is to be a Full-time writer, and I work hard every day toward that goal, my day job is not a bad Plan B.  

I’m so thankful for all of the unexpected places life has taken me so far and can’t wait to see all of the unexpected it will lead to.