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To continue with this series of lovely ladies who blog and the way they make money for their hosting fees, I present to you the wonderful – and oh my, do I mean it – Jonniker. I’m not sure if I can eloquently say how truly awesome I think this woman is. She’s also honest, thoughtful, funny, and she can write her ass off. In fact, she does just that for a living, which makes me the teeniest bit jealous. But most importantly she has something that many of us strive for: a passion about her job, which I am slowly, but surely learning is far more important than money.
What did you want to be when you 'grow up' or perhaps, what do you want to be when you 'grow up'?
When I was very young, I had all kinds of romantic notions of what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was planning to be a paleontologist, a marine biologist, a dolphin trainer - all sorts of comically ridiculous vocations that I am still convinced that no one actually does.
Around ninth grade, a really great teacher recommended that I start writing more. I took a class with him, and quickly figured out that I loved it - I loved describing things, telling stories and thinking of things differently. Ever since that class with that wonderful teacher, being a writer was kind of in the back of my mind. The thing is though, I was also raised in a very blue-collar world, and was pretty poor growing up. I knew that if I wanted to be a writer, that I would likely be even poorer, and I couldn't do it to myself. So, junior year of high school, I decided I would do public relations instead - well-paying, and not entirely unglamorous, or so I thought. So for an alarming number of years, that's exactly what I did.
Are you doing that now?
Now I'm writing, after spending some time in a purgatorial career in public relations. At 30, I changed careers and, in addition to other sundry things, I write. It pays in the high range of peanuts compared to what I was used to, but I finally get to write. And you know, after all that - I don't really miss the money. Not at all.
What did you do (or where, if you are willing to share) for your first job out of college?
I got a job with a PR agency right out of college, and I'd heard that the management ran the company like we were making Nike sneakers to keep our family alive in a remote Guatemalan village. Everyone told me that's how it was, and yet, because I was an overly ambitious, self-flaggelating Capricorn, I replied with, "Oh that's PERFECT! Bring it on!"
And so, they did. I worked an 18 hour day, every day, got screamed at and called names on a daily basis, and unfortunately, was very good at it, and enjoyed the pain, as though it made me earn the paycheck that much more. I was constantly rewarded for my completely unhealthy, soul-sucking corporate lifestyle and behavior. I gave up family outings, vacations, evenings at home with my now-husband, and about a million other really important things that constituted life, all in the name of getting ahead. But the really sad thing is that I never really - not for one second - enjoyed what I did. I enjoyed being good at it, and I loved being successful, and climbing the corporate ladder and all the perks that came with it, but if all of those trappings went away? I didn't enjoy it at all.
Was it the job that you wanted to do?
Uh, yes, unfortunately. Right out of college, I decided that money was more important than happiness, so I figured out what I could do that would get me the most money, with the most pain, because money without pain made me feel guilty. I got what I wished for.
A horror story from that first job or a horror story from a job that you got soon there after:
The worst day of my professional life was the worst day of many people's lives: 9/11. That morning, I was working in Boston, within a stone's throw of Logan Airport, where two of
