Obligations Sometimes Bring Unexpected Rewards

My Writing journey Began After We Had Children

I felt lucky to be able to stay home with our kids, but it wasn’t without sacrifice. My husband worked a full-time job and had a side gig in construction to make it happen. He had long days away from home, working, and my long days were at home, working, without him. He missed out on a lot that happened at home and I missed out on things outside the home, but that was the deal when we decided to have kids. One parent would always be home to take care of them.

Do You Need a Challenge?

I loved being a stay-at-home mom, seeing their first steps and hearing their first words. But spending the day with only children, for the most part, sometimes made me feel like my brain was turning into mashed potatoes. After a while, I needed a challenge. Not that parenting wasn’t one, but a challenge of a different kind. When you’re a parent, it seems your day is filled with things that must get done. Things for others.

Needing Something for You is not Selfish

I needed something for myself, and that’s when I discovered that a local newspaper was looking for columnists. I became intrigued, so I called the editor. I was told that there was no pay for the columns, but if I was still interested, I could write three sample columns and let her know when they were done. The task, at first, felt overwhelming. What was I, The Strategic Chicken, going to write about?

Challenge Accepted

Did I have anything to say that was worth reading? I decided to accept the challenge and during times when the kids were in bed fast asleep, I sat at my word processor (yep — I’m old) and wrote one, then another, and then another. And because self-doubt is such a wonderfully pervasive thing, I edited them over and over. When I thought they were worthy of being seen, I made the call, brought them in, and left the columns, which at that point felt like three of my children, with the receptionist.

A Writer is Born

That’s when the fingernail biting began. They’re going to hate them, I thought. But a couple of weeks later, the phone rang, and I heard the words that began my career as a writer: “We love your work, and we want to print your columns. Can you come back so our photographer can take your picture? We need an image to run alongside them,” she said.

All I Wanted Was to Keep Writing

Seeing my first column in print, with my face and name beside it, was one of the proudest moments of my life. Boy, was I hooked! And somehow, I never ran out of topics. People told me I was ridiculous to write for a newspaper for free. “Are you nuts? Surely, they have something in the budget to pay you. Don’t be a sucker,” they berated. I understood what they were saying, but I didn’t care about the money. All I wanted was to keep writing, so I did. And I never regretted it. For me, it was the right choice then and for the future, because down the road, writing those columns paid me in other ways.

Stay tuned for upcoming columns to find out how The Strategic Chicken made that happen.
Until next time,

Jean AKA The Strategic Chicken - Making life’s journey one strategic step at a time