Over a Year & 1 Career Change Later
I know I’ve said not to stop writing for too long, but I obviously didn’t follow my own advice. I’ve managed to get completely off-track in all my writing projects, and while I am working on restarting regular posts, I figure you all deserve the story.
Emphasis on story. I have no excuses.
The Story of My Leave from Writing
So… we left off with a dead computer and a plan to buy a new one or pay for repairs at the next credit card period. That didn’t happen.
The order is a little fuzzy at this point, but three major events conspired to interfere with that.
- The Pothole from Hades
- The Verdict on My Computer
- The Complete Career Change
The Pothole from Hades
I hit it on the way home and knew immediately that I was in trouble. Everything just felt wrong. Luckily, I was close enough to home to limp the rest of the way. Of course, that meant that I needed to get towed to get a replacement tire (1 was completely dead, and other was not far from it).
I normally expect to use AAA when I travel, but saving money is saving money. I got it to the tire shop, and I got 4 new tires (2 new and 2 really old is not the safest bet in winter, unfortunately).
Within a couple of days, I felt something odd as I was driving. Low and behold, I had a flat tire. A brand new flat tire. *sob*
Turns out there was damage to the rim or hub (I’m not very good with cars), which damaged the new tire and caused it to shred (yay). The salesman kindly retroactively sold me the new tire insurance to save me money; however, the 5 new tires definitely sucked up the funds for computer repairs.
The Verdict on My Computer
Speaking of repairs – the shop I took it to essentially said that it’s so old that it’s not supported anymore, and the cost to repair it was over half the cost to get a new computer.
But I couldn’t afford a new computer…
Still, I couldn’t justify paying them that much to replace the hard drive and battery of a computer that old (2009, I think). Like they said, another part of it could break at any time.
At the same time, I needed a computer, and I really had trouble justifying a new one given the money I’d just bled to the tires.
So I got brave. I ordered discount replacement parts online and did the work myself. It’s actually not as hard as one would think. Who knew?
That means I have a fixed computer, right? Why didn’t I start posting last year. Turns out, there was 1 more complication.
The Complete Career Change
I’ve been writing professionally for years. Granted, it was educational writing (I haven’t yet figured out how to make fiction into a career), but I loved it. That said, it’s not the highest paying profession – especially not with my educational background. Let’s just say I don’t have the fancy degrees needed to convince people I’m worth paying more in that field.
After a few years of trying to supplement my writing profession with additional jobs, I knew it was never going to work. And right in the middle of the tire and computer hubbub, I made the decision to try something new: computer programming.
Cue shock. Computer programming? Where did that come from?
Actually, you can trace the blame back to these blogs. When I started, I knew nothing about code or how it worked, but over time, I learned a bit about HTML and CSS just from tweaking my posts. And while those aren’t full code languages, they made me realize that coding didn’t work the way I thought it did.
You see, I always thought that programmers worked in 0s and 1s, which, honestly, sounds horrible. The truth, however, is that coding today works a lot like writing. There’s a reason they call them code languages – they each have their own syntax (some share their syntax just like romance languages), and overall, the building blocks and big-picture logic of coding really speak to my creative writing brain.
Also, it turns out that programming is an extremely in-demand and well-paying field. For the first time, I found myself facing the possibility of work that I would like that could also be a stable and profitable career. How could I not try it?
I took a bootcamp because I’m not comfortable teaching myself new things when I don’t have a foundation to rely on, and within 2 months of finishing the bootcamp, I had a new job as a programmer. And guess what? That dream of liking the work and getting paid well? 100% realized.
Woohoo! *Happy Dance*
That was nearly a year ago, and I debated for a long time whether or not I should start blogging again right away. Eventually, I decided that I should spend some time focusing on my new job and getting the rest of my life back in order. Now, I’m finally ready to get off my butt and get back to work. Posts and chapters coming soon.
As always, to any of you still reading, thank you! You are amazing, and I do not deserve your patience and kindness!
-Em
