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Just Let Me Write in Peace, Susan!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As I was saying, writers are no strangers to the outside noise of what we should really be doing. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the solace that reading provides. Whether you’re a college student that finds comfort in traveling to Azkaban to calm your mind in between studying or a young parent that finds comfort in a Romeo and Juliet<\/em>-style of a Viking romance while simultaneously praying the kid stays asleep long enough for you to finish the chapter, reading allows anyone to escape into any world he or she picks up with hands or finds online. Reading allows us to become someone else, hear what someone else hears, feel what someone else feels, go through what someone else goes through. To this day, I still wish I had the power to just transport into any novel or story of my choosing and come back to this world when I feel like it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though, it’s possible<\/strong> that stems from watching Super Why <\/em>as a kid. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I know I’m not the only one here who watched PBS as a kid <\/strong>\ud83d\ude12 With how different forms of text serve as a means of expression or safe haven, it’s not that far off for people to decide they want to create those safe havens themselves. It’s not that far off for people to decide they want to create those means of expression themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can check out more about this “safe haven” in my post, “Enchantment Through the Lens of Stories<\/a>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether it’s novels, blogs (obviously), articles, poems, plays, scripts, or reports, writing is a medium (you can also read articles and post your own on Medium<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n People have their own notions as to what people need to do with their lives in order to be successful. Little do some people realize is that success is based off on someone’s own desires and goals for their life, not your lists of bullet points he or she needs to tick off for you in order to be considered successful. Success is subjective. Each subject (er, excuse me…person) has his or her own set of criteria for success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Susan’s success might look like becoming a CEO, while Brenda’s looks like owning a bakery shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keisha’s success looks like becoming a chef, while Kaidence’s looks like becoming a remote freelance writer that gets to travel whenever she’d like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary’s success looks like finally publishing her first novel, while Sasha’s looks like becoming a mother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kevin’s success looks like becoming a travel agent, while Mason’s looks like getting his Associate’s Degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You get the gist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing Our Success<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I understand it’s important to recognize that some occupations you’re passionate about may not pay all the bills, so you have to have other jobs that would ensure financial security while pursuing those passions on the side. You may have to wait until you’re financially in a place to pursue passions full-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My own eighth-grade Language Arts teacher had said to me: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “What’s going to put food on the table while you’re writing a book?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I’ve got to say, she was making some sense. It does make sense to ensure financial security if passions don’t allow it on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there are people who may say, “Screw that. I just want to be happy,” and go straight for the passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whichever route is taken, people will always have their own lists of bullet points that you have to tick off for success. For some people, unless you’re addressed as Dr., you’re not successful. For some people, if you don’t have a college degree, you’re not successful. For some people, if you don’t have a certain amount of money, you’re not successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For writers, we may hear the following like a broken record: <\/p>\n\n\n I don’t remember asking for your opinion, Susan<\/strong> \ud83d\ude12<\/p>\n\n\n\n What people seem to not realize is that there are plenty of ways that writers make their living while pursuing their passion. Some sites that writers may utilize may be: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, there are writers that may work other jobs as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, there are writers that manage to make money based off of their writing alone with more experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, we’re not Stephen King, but we don’t need to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As writers, we all have our strengths. We all have our drives. We all have our lenses of writing through how we express ourselves and communicate. It’s not up to Susan to decide what’s a career or the dimensions our careers need to be built with to be of value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As writers, we build narratives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As writers, we also build the dimensions of our careers (because it’s not just a phase).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disclaimer: I have nothing against people named Susan<\/strong>\ud83e\udd17<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether it’s ditching the ballet flats for Doc Martens(not that both can’t be worn simultaneously, we’re all about range here), going from T-Swizzle(Taylor Swift, in other words, for those we aren’t cultured) to Bauhaus, or simply deciding what you want to do with your life, someone always has something to say about what you should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7422,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/tster013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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