What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?
I have always liked cryptograms and at one time thought about joining the Navy as a cryptologist. But the Navy and Uncle Sam don’t take anyone with any kind of health issue or disability so that out.
In college, I studied languages, I thought that maybe I could go to Hollywood and help translate for films. I frequently noticed that when translations of foreign languages were involved, there were often mistakes and I thought I could help.
But seeing a friend hit by a car, took three years of Russian away in a matter of a second and again my plans had to change.
I have been writing for the school paper in college and just continued from there. While I have never made any “real“ money from my writing, I have greatly enjoyed doing so. After over 30 years of writing, I have at times, considered stopping and retiring, but it always draws me back in; as my dad says it’s not, what I it’s who I am.
I’ve never gone in for the hard news because I want to get it right. If you write hard, breaking news stories getting it first is more important than getting it right and I can’t deal with that. My focus is and always has been on music, entertainment, and sports; things I know about, things I can understand, and things that give me time to get it right. Things that have surrounded me my whole life.
Over the years, I have gotten to see and write about mini musical artists and have enjoyed everyone of them. My writing has allowed me to see people that I otherwise would not have been able to see; to even fill in a few lines on the bucket list… like Il Divo and Santana. I even got see Darius Rucker and 54-40 from the fifth row!
I will probably never make the big time but all in all it has been a good ride and I’ll keep going…at least until I can’t do it anymore.