Wednesday, March 28, 2007

In My Past Life

Yesterday I was thinking about what I use to do before I became a knitter. Well in my past life I was a writer, a journalist, if you will. My senior year of High School (about 5 or 6 years ago), my school did not have a newspaper so I made one up. It was a monthly called The People's Voice. I remember staying up all night trying to type up the whole newspaper (we did not have Internet at my school) and make sure that the layout was perfect for printing. The last step was getting the paper approved by the principal before printing it and then passin it out. I found joy in seeing every single person at school reading that newspaper in class and during lunch time. I consider it one of my best accomplishments.

When I got to college, I continued by journalistic endeavors and started writing a dating column at my school. It was popular, to say the least. One girl actually told me that she would tear out my article and throw the rest of the paper away! Needless to say that I was flattered.

By my sophomore year my relationship with the newspaper had soured so I ventured off and created a website called TheGamut.TK (doesn't exist anymore). Again, another success, and I was absolutely thrilled to be doing the work.

After that, I went to Argentina for a year, came back, did school for another year and decided that I had to start writing again. The editor for the school newspaper job was up for election, so I applied. I was devastated when I did not get the job. In fact, this not talent ass of man got the position and I have not been the same since.

I thought maybe I could just write freelance for the paper, but then my research took up most of my time last semester. Currently, I'm still not writing and I'm about to leave school.

I told you guys this story because it has been burning me up inside for some time. When I applied for the editorial job, I worked hard to get it. I made a resume, a proposal, and went to every single interview meeting. The guy who has the position missed many appointments, because he was too busy or simply forgot about it. After he had stolen the position from me (can you say "bitter"?) he offered me the asst editor position. It was a paid position and he told me that I would get the same amount as he did. But my pride did not allow me to work for him. How different my life would be if I had just accepted defeat? I probably would have more career options right now, doing something that I use to love. I say "used to" because I'm not sure if I want to do it now. I mean, I write all the time, on this blog and especially for my teachers. But the blog is personal and my school work has not soul. My journalistic writing allowed me to be among the people which I loved.

So yeah, there is no solution to this problem, if it really is one. I know there was not much knitting content but again, I needed to share something that has been in my heart for quite some time now with you guys. Just to make this interesting, what were you in you past life? Do you wish that you could go back? Why or why not?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd never want to go back. I used to work for our newspaper (though not for the editorial dept., where I wanted to work) & a 9-5 job just isn't me. If I didn't have kids, though, I'd probably still work in an office & hate it.

Harlem Purl said...

I think I was a teacher in a past life but I just never really thought about it seriously until now. All through my teenage years I would gather around the little youngins in my hood and teach then little dances and steps to keep them out of trouble. During my college days, although I was an accounting major and I minored in mathematics. For some reason, all the computer majors in my math classes would come to me for tutoring (go figure). And now, I work in a stuffy office and the only fulfillment I get is teaching knitting. Hmmmmmmm. I'm currently trying to change my career path because the one I'm on right now looks like it's leading to nowhere. Wish me luck!

Valerie Polichar said...

I have a lot of past lives where I was a technical writer, a tech support staffer, a foreign language teacher, and a graduate student. I ended up in a technical management/administration position that I love, but along the way I kind of had my heart broken in regards to what I thought was going to be my future as a professor. In the end, academia wasn't the right place for me (at least as faculty) and I'm really happy. So good things sometimes come despite all the weird twists and turns and heartbreaks. I forsee good stuff for you.

noblinknits said...

I acted and sang a lot at school. I used to think I'd try to do it professionally but then uni got in the way. I kept putting off getting involved with shows. I keep thinking about whether I'd like to get into it again but don't know if it would be fulfilling. When I was younger, it helped me express myself and make friends and fed a need for attention. I'm not sure I have those needs still.