Clueless in Joplin

Three weeks ago, I quit my job. Like, straight up walked out an hour into my shift.

Since then, I have been doing the stay at home mom gig. I’ve been writing, cleaning, homeschooling, and editing. I’ve been sending out resumes and filling out applications. I’ve also been doing alot of soul searching.

I don’t want to go back to child care. I’ve been working in the child care field for twenty years. And even though I was required to have continuing education classes, first aid, CPR, and other specialized classes, because I don’t have an actual bachelor’s degree I can’t work as a teacher in the school system.

We live in a very customer service oriented area. Lots of restaraunts. And they all require at least one to two years experience. Office jobs are the same. I have office experience. I use Word and Excel. But because I haven’t used them in a professional manner it doesn’t count. Hell, you would think being a published author would qualify me to work in a book store. Or the years I spent working as an animal assisted therapist would help me get a job at a pet shop.

Nope.

No call backs. No emails. Nothing.

So, I listened to some advice given to me a while back. If the job you want isn’t out there, then make it. So, I did. I am now offering my services for proofreading and editing. I’m also offering to make a YouTube video or blog post reviewing books or services or products. For a price of course.

I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m forty. I have three kids and a husband to support. And i’m literally making this all up as I go along. I don’t know if it’s going to work. I hope it will. But, as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned something about myself. I’ve never been a Monday to Friday 9 – 5 kind of person. And that’s OK. I’ve never been anything close to nomal. Why did I think my source of income would be any different?

So, here I sit. Sunday evening, when most people are going into a depression about going to work tomorrow, I’m sitting and writing. I’ve even started developing the typical bad writer habits of not eating or sleeping. I won’t go into my hygiene.

I will still wake up at five in the morning because I need to write, edit, start laundry, work out a little, and wake up my step daughter for school. I’ll get a call tomorrow from my former manager telling me my son’s spring preschool pictures are in. Other than that, I have no clue what will happen.

And I’m OK with that.