Writing and Karma

As a child, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered: "a writer."  I didn't stay totally true to that dream.  Typing class in high school threw me a bit off my game.  If I wasn't coordinated enough to type, how would I ever be a writer?  But my high school English teachers encouraged me.  And after a few false starts, I graduated from college with an English major.

Reasonable persons looking at my CV, would probably say I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  And they would be right.  I've been a high school English teacher, assistant/associate book editor, freelance journalist, non-profit manager, technology executive, university faculty member, and academic administrator.  My CV doesn't show it, but there were even a few times that I kept myself from starving by honing those typing skills and working as a Kelly Girl.

Oddly enough, what ties all of that together is #writing.  A great piece in the Chronicle of Higher Ed today by @nathcoliver asks academicians and writers "What are we worth?"  For freelance writers, the answer seems to be about $2 a word.  As the article points out, media companies have "abdicated their responsibility to financially care for journalists."

I count myself among the lucky ones.  Since I started on my seven-career adventure,  I've never been hungry.  I've always been able to pay the rent.  And #writing has always enriched my work. I don't know exactly how I got so lucky, but this is where #karma enters today's post.  I've always tried to give to others who were growing their careers.  I respond to surveys for doctoral students.  I write letters of reference for former students.

And that's where today's #karma will end.  While shopping in a grocery store that both of us rarely visit, I ran into @utadpr graduate @margohuges.  Through social media, I knew that she was trusting the universe and reinventing herself without a net.  I had already offered up assistance.  But, as it turned out when we talked IRL, there were some very easy connections I could help her make.  AND she had a great idea for ways she could help me with a class for which I'm #writing the syllabus right now. Grocery store #karma and #writing.  It's what I'm thinking about today.