change
July 2007 
A Passion Found
Posted on Jul 16th, 2007
by 
ever changing mind
ever changing mind
I have finally found passion in my work as a writer. That's huge for me. Having worked as a journalist for several years, I was hired last August to be a writer in the marketing services department of a community college. And just recently situtations have shifted allowing me to use my talent to make a difference.
I didn't know I had writing talent until I was a sophomore in college. My relationship with this talent has always been one that causes me tremendous stress, but also great joy.
The human-interest stories I wrote for small non-daily papers often thrilled me. Yet I sometimes agonized over the wording. There are so many ways to tell a single story, and I had to figure out the most compelling.
Until just a few weeks ago, I believed I wanted to be a novelist or screenwriter. I’ve actually completed a manuscript for a memoir, and several agents have nibbled but none have gobbled. The time is not right, and I am not ready.
Dreams of creating inspirational novels and movies have filled my mind for nearly a decade and have left me aching and unfulfilled. Characters visit me and situations unfold. But full story lines generally escape my grasp, leaving me with feelings of spite for my gift and self-disdain for my abandoned potential. Yet, I have held fast to the belief that story-telling is my destiny. Until now.
Several new job orders at work are giving me the opportunity to do more than just write. I have been planning and implementing ways to help increase awareness of two off-campus centers.
One site in particular is allowing me to reach out and make a difference in the lives of others, to give hope where there is little. It is a site in an inner city, where kids aren’t encouraged by family and community to go to college. Boys grow up believing a man is supposed to get a job right out of high school, if not sooner. Girls expect a man to take care of them or they get pregnant and live hand to mouth as a single parent.
I am working to show these kids they don’t have to settle for menial jobs making wages that keep them at the poverty level. I am trying to help spread the word that they don’t have to be in the top 10, or even 90, percent of their class to get an education for a better future, whether that’s in a trade or with a degree.
If I can get this message through to even a small percent of the youth population, it will continue to spread as those kids encourage others then become parents who encourage their own children.
I am excited for the first time in ages about my work. I have found a passion that puts my writing talents to use. Perhaps this is what I was meant to do after all. I’d still like to write screenplays and novels. I’d like to give life to the visitors in my mind. But perhaps that’s just my ego talking. Perhaps those characters are there just for me alone.
I didn't know I had writing talent until I was a sophomore in college. My relationship with this talent has always been one that causes me tremendous stress, but also great joy.
The human-interest stories I wrote for small non-daily papers often thrilled me. Yet I sometimes agonized over the wording. There are so many ways to tell a single story, and I had to figure out the most compelling.
Until just a few weeks ago, I believed I wanted to be a novelist or screenwriter. I’ve actually completed a manuscript for a memoir, and several agents have nibbled but none have gobbled. The time is not right, and I am not ready.
Dreams of creating inspirational novels and movies have filled my mind for nearly a decade and have left me aching and unfulfilled. Characters visit me and situations unfold. But full story lines generally escape my grasp, leaving me with feelings of spite for my gift and self-disdain for my abandoned potential. Yet, I have held fast to the belief that story-telling is my destiny. Until now.
Several new job orders at work are giving me the opportunity to do more than just write. I have been planning and implementing ways to help increase awareness of two off-campus centers.
One site in particular is allowing me to reach out and make a difference in the lives of others, to give hope where there is little. It is a site in an inner city, where kids aren’t encouraged by family and community to go to college. Boys grow up believing a man is supposed to get a job right out of high school, if not sooner. Girls expect a man to take care of them or they get pregnant and live hand to mouth as a single parent.
I am working to show these kids they don’t have to settle for menial jobs making wages that keep them at the poverty level. I am trying to help spread the word that they don’t have to be in the top 10, or even 90, percent of their class to get an education for a better future, whether that’s in a trade or with a degree.
If I can get this message through to even a small percent of the youth population, it will continue to spread as those kids encourage others then become parents who encourage their own children.
I am excited for the first time in ages about my work. I have found a passion that puts my writing talents to use. Perhaps this is what I was meant to do after all. I’d still like to write screenplays and novels. I’d like to give life to the visitors in my mind. But perhaps that’s just my ego talking. Perhaps those characters are there just for me alone.
Access: Public
