Thursday, September 2, 2010

Note to Self: Remember to Breathe

Lately I've been forgetting to breathe. It starts with a tight feeling in my stomach, muscles clenched, and a whirring in my brain. I force a breathe in and realize, wow, its been a little while. Never mind that a little while is only a few seconds or so.

It's rather irritating, this thing called breathing. Especially when you forget. I'm mostly in a bit of a panic because of a self-created pickle of potentially catastrophic implications. If being broke can be considered that.

When I found myself facing the prospect of both finding a job and starting grad school this fall, I took what I thought would be the best course of action. I decided to become a freelance writer, and effectively eliminate any real need to go to work or generally do anything if I didn't want to. In the process, I turned down a job for an adjunct assistant in the online writing center of a certain college. Though the work conditions would have been ideal, working with developing writers, my favorite, plus no need to change out of my pj's, I was worried that the demands would compete with grad school.

So I wound up doing the freelancer thing, which has paid out a bit, so far. I was actually doing okay, though mostly from one site that I worked for. Then....voila, work for that site dried up, and now I'm pretty much making peanuts.

The moral of the story is, don't put all your eggs in one basket. And remember to breathe. Am I going to continue freelance writing? Yes. Will I work smarter this go round? I'd like to think so, but likely not. I'm sure I'll always be guilty of chucking all those eggs in one place, its kind of been my modus operendi in life. The basket of love, grad schools, freelance work, whathaveyou. I will watch out for those projects that could potentially run dry at some point, and have a backup plan!


Photo: Big Sur, CA - One of the most relaxing places I've ever been.

16 comments:

  1. This is so cool! I'm your first follower and first commenter! You never know what will happen when you go to a blog BBQ.

    Hope you'll check out my blog as well. I'm about to celebrate my first blogoversary. I blog about all kinds of things seven days a week. I try to keep my blog site with a regularly occurring theme each day so readers can know what to expect each day. I try to encourage participation from the visitors to my blog. Stop by and look over my past week and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

    Good luck with your new blogging enterprise. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  2. Here from the bbq. Nice to "meet"/follow you. I've worked the craziest jobs (sometimes up to 5 part time gigs at once) with 3 kidlets swirling around me. Think way WAY outside the box to things like house/office cleaning, catering, ebaying...things that will bring $ and not eat up all your time.

    Pullin' for ya! Come visit if you get a chance. :D

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  3. Beautiful photos on your blog. In fact, Great blog. I'm a follower now from Karen's blog BBQ.

    Clarissa Draper from Listen To The Voices

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  4. Popped over from KarenG's BBQ and just had follow a blogger who like me forgets to breathe.
    Love your blog.

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  5. Thank you so much everyone! It's wonderful to get that bit of encouragement from this new venture of mine. I'd toyed with the idea of blogging for a long time, and finally committed myself to the idea of just doing it. The experience has been quite a bit of fun so far...

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  6. best of luck with working everything out. <3

    popping over from KarenG's bbq! i love new blogs, and yours looks promising!

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  7. That photo is beautiful!

    I'm hopping over from Karen's, too. And I also do the no-breathing thing when I'm anxious. It's bad!

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  8. I came from KarenG's BBQ. Nice to meet you. And good luck with your new projects. Looking forward to reading more posts!!

    Doris

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  9. That is a very beautiful photograph! So relaxing just to look at.

    You're almost next door to me and my daughter. We're in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I just met you at KarenG's BBQ, and now I'm a follower.

    You do need to relax. That's probably why you sometimes feel you can't breathe. Very scary, I think, to strike out as a freelance writer. I would have taken "the job." So I wish you much, much luck, which comes from hard work and perseverance. It sounds like you have the latter!
    Ann

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  10. Hi Anaya,
    Lovely name. Over from Karen G's BBQ and couldn't resist the guacamole. Beautiful photography BTW.

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  11. Hi Anaya, I clicked over from the BBQ, as well. I wish you wonderful days ahead as you stretch out into blogging. I started 16 months ago and am so glad I did. I've met tons of great people, learned a lot about writing and publishing and been able to express myself and interact with people who share my interests. It's a total win. (and we help each other remember to breathe)

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  12. Freelancing is just one of those tricky jobs.. even with saving for 'dryspells' you're never sure quite how long they'll be.. Good luck! I just popped over from Karen's BBQ so nice to meet you

    http://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com

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  13. Stopping by from KarenG's BBQ blogfest. Great photos looks like where I'm living. Nice to meet you! :D

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  14. Dropping in from KarenG's BBQ (what a great feast, yum, loved the seafood). A lot of us have been where you are. Angie's right, think outside the box. I'm pulling for you! And following you. Drop by if you can!

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  15. Hi, I'm a Karen barbecue guest.

    I and my husband both went freelance abount 11years ago. There are still times when we take projects we know will be a pita, and there are still times I think I will never get work again. But so far we are making it--two kids, a dog, a house.

    I'm still figuring out how I want to blog. I really don't feel I have much to offer other writers--although I've managed to get a book published. I think of myself as a reader. But I 'm not a reviewer... So, for now I'm just trying to blog each week.

    Good luck in every way.

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  16. Thank you everyone for your kind words of encouragement and advice! I've had great fun visiting all your blogs over the week. I'm hoping I have enough time to read all the blogs I've signed up to follow!

    For those that mentioned my photos, my fiancee and I made good on my lifelong dream of a cross-country road trip the summer before last, and that's where the pics come from...

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