You always hear kids talking about what they want to be “when they grow up”. I heard my brother change his “grown up job” several times growing up. I don’t know that I ever had one of those “dreams” when I was a kid.
But in college I chose language as my majors and thought that it might be cool to go to Hollywood and work in the film industry helping out when a foreign language – German and Russian – was used; making sure the wording way correct and that the actors actually said the words right. But in the end things never really worked out; so that dream went up in smoke…or more accurately run over by a car.
In Russia, I was one of the very few people in the group who could walk the streets of St. Petersburgh or Moscow and not stand out as an American. In two trips to Russia the only time I was tagged as an American was on one of the trips to the Hermatage when we were leaving as a group. We were accosted by some locals hawking their wares, but I just “gave them the look” and kept my mouth shut, and they left me alone.
My major professor and leader of the group told me that I would make a good currier for the Feds. But when I got my hands on an application, it was about 30 pages long and wanted to know every move I had made my entire life. Who can remember all that stuff??? I might remember I did something but not the exact day and time…or year!
So obviously that never worked out.
I began writing for the school paper in college and have been doing it ever since. I suffer from extreme stage fright – I call it stage terror – so any kind of performing was most definitely out of the question; but I thought well maybe I can write about those that do the performing. Thirty plus years later, I’m still at it. I have thought of hanging things up a number of times but just can’t seem to let it go. My Dad said that I couldn’t stop because it is who I am.
So, I guess, in a way, this is my dream job. As an independent journalist I get to choose what I want to write about, instead of being told I have to cover a story on which I have no knowledge or understanding.
After writing for a number of websites that either paid next to nothing or closed down due to money issues; I decided to create my own website. I launched “Words, Music, and News” late in 2017 and while I am still waiting to reach the minimum to get paid, I have managed to reach 70,000 page views and write just short of 6,000 posts (which I will reach before the end of the weekend).
It isn’t always about the money, but that part sure would be nice to have too!