This post is in three parts, can you guess what they are called?
Perserverance
I started this blog almost two years ago with this post. It was pretty amateur I’ll admit (not like it’s any better now), but it was a lot of fun and it felt good to put something out there. It wouldn’t be long before my blog was discovered by the WordPress admins, and after my third post I was freshly pressed. I was blown away by the overwhelming positive response I got. I thought I was set. I can quit my day job! Boy was I wrong.
My remaining 17 posts all garnered the same positive comments but none came close to matching the popularity of that initial post, so I lost interest. I thought, “if no one is reading it, what’s the point? I have other things to spend my time on, like getting a decent job.” Six months after my last post I found myself an unemployed “aspiring screenwriter” living in Los Angeles. Life sucked. I debated going back to waiting tables again. I debated selling my body. I debated asking my parents for money, but not necessarily in that order.
I decided to bite the bullet and start applying for full-time, career-oriented jobs. I played to my strengths and applied to different writing positions. Through my research I found that there were quite a few internet marketing firms based in LA, so I applied. Surprisingly, after only about a week of applying, I heard back from one such company. They called me in for an interview and in I went.
Luck
I arrived a solid ten minutes late to the interview, like any good creative person should, but apparently I was right on time because the person interviewing me was late as well. After waiting for about five minutes I was ushered into a small office and the interview began. It will be noted that normally I do quite well in interviews. I have above average self-confidence and fair generally well under pressure (I’m a good BSer), but today I’ll admit I was quite nervous.
I managed to compose myself, and overall I thought everything was going pretty well. I was still kind of wondering what got me the interview considering I didn’t really have any paid writing experience, internet or otherwise. This question was soon answered though when she got to the topic of my blog. At first I was surprised, but then I was worried because I started to remember all the ridiculous shit I post on this thing, especially this one. And that would be the exact one she chose to discuss.
Not only did we discuss the blog post I wrote about how working a job sucks compared to being in college, but she actually liked it. In fact, it was the very reason why I got this interview. I would go on to get two more interviews because of it, and eventually select one of which I am currently employed. Ain’t that some shit?
Inspiration
Which takes me to this post. I have been working for a little over a month now. My finances are starting to get back on track, and I am generally happy. While I had originally quit this blog because I was frustrated with the response and didn’t think it was worth my time, it eventually paid off. I’ve also learned that being creative isn’t about the reward; it’s about expressing yourself. It’s about being an individual. If you do that then eventually everything else will just fall into place.
Hence I have returned to blogging. This time around I’m not hoping for any kind of monetary reward, but just hoping to make a few people laugh, make you think, or just make your day a bit better. Happy reading!
I have also been inspired by the return of this brave woman.
Oh and yes, this means a new post is actually coming. This time I promise. I will have it up by the end of the week. Here is a snippet:
“Finally, I locate the miracle eye juice. I stumble to the cash register, fumble around for some money, and hand her some blurry-ass bills I can only hope are the right ones. She does some cash register things and hands me back more bills, which I also assume to be the right ones. I take the magic eyeball liquid, walk three steps out of the store, and squeeze that shit in my eye like a fire hose turned on a raging fire.”
The Unknowledge Tree 