Thing 8: Self-employment

Hello, Dear People of the Internet. Apologies for yesterday’s silence (if you even noticed it). Besides being an exercise in appreciation, part of my reason for doing the 10 things was to challenge myself to post for 10 days solid. But, yesterday, life had other plans.

Our childcare provider’s daughter came down with the barfing flu, so daycare was cancelled. Then a bunch of other unexpected things I won’t go into rained down from the sky and dictated that all-things-work were going to have to take a backseat anyway.

As a result, instead of writing or editing, I took my daughter to see a matinee of the Muppet Movie (which is hilarious, by the way) because this is the kind of thing self-employed people do when the going gets tough. Yeah. I know. It’s time to break out the tiny violin.

Woe! WOE is me!

Working for yourself is pretty great. No, scratch that. It’s REALLY great. The snacks are plentiful, the company is good (if you like cats), and instead of sitting in a tiny, airless cubicle, I have a window with a great view. (I’m ALWAYS the first to know when the neighbours are getting a UPS delivery.) I never have to ask anyone permission to go to a doctor’s appointment and nobody fires me if, on a slow day, I decide to just take a nap.

I love how I can fit my fiction writing in around my freelance work. And the variety of jobs I get is pretty cool, too. Yesterday alone, I wrote text for the back of a board game box, worked on a cancer prevention brochure and did some research for an article about the health and phys ed curriculum. Granted, I had to do it all after the kids were finally tucked into bed at the end of a long day… but, as far as I’m concerned, that’s a small price to pay for the freedom I have.