My Life at 30
My Life at 30
Are you where you thought you would be?
As a child, I was a reader. I spent countless hours lost in the fantasy world of fiction. Good fiction, bad fiction, it didn’t matter, I would read anything you put in front of me. When I was in elementary school, I wrote a story for school and it ended up winning a contest. Right then and there, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be an author. I wanted to be the one giving people a break from their reality and drawing them into a fantasy world.
As I got older and had to start making career choices, my parents, teachers and guidance counselors encouraged me to be practical. Become a teacher or a secretary. Those were the jobs that were geared towards the women in our area. I had no real interest in either of those options, I wanted to write. I took the requisite classes in school. I took the business classes, I took typing, I took computer fundamentals. I enjoyed the classes, especially the computer classes. At the encouraging of family and mentors, I was led into the option of going to the local Vocational school for the last two years of high school. I got my certificate in Business Computer Systems Technology along with my high school diploma and the encouragement to follow this into college.
I wasn’t really satisfied, I didn’t want to go to college yet, so I took a year off and made use of my certificate, working in a data entry center for a check printer. I didn’t like it, in fact, I downright hated it. So after three months, I quit and started the application process for college. I enrolled in the practical business administration field, but it wasn’t really what I wanted. I wanted to write. Deep down, that was what I wanted.
I started school in the fall, thrived on the required English classes, used them for all of my electives. I drifted through my coursework easily, didn’t really ever have much of a problem with anything. I was a good student. I just wasn’t satisfied. I tried switching to a computer science program. Computers were my second love, and I thrived more as I learned how to program. I enjoyed myself and thought that I could make something of it. But I still found myself writing. I used to carry a notebook with me, just for my writing.
When I finally graduated, I was in an area that not job rich in the computer science field, especially for women. So I looked for practical jobs, I even looked for jobs that I could telecommute. In the mean time, I fell in love and got married, became a stay at home wife. I have never regretted that choice. In fact, I’m glad I made that choice. Staying at home has given me time to read and write again.
It has given me the time to pursue my true love and interest. Over all the years, my choice of fantasy worlds has changed, but I still want to be the one with my name on the cover. I want to be the one with my name on the New York Times Best Seller’s list. And I have finally taken the first steps to make this happen.
Am I where I thought I would be when I was 18? No, I thought I would be working as a secretary at some dead end job. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I could be at home, writing happily and possibly making something out of it other than a hobby.
