Careers, creativity and change
It was 23 pages when all was said and done — 23 pages of writing dating back to 2017 and ranging in quality, varying in subjects from geopolitics and the role of coffee shops to a study about one of the bastions of American literary criticism, The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
These 23 pages, double spaced and composed in 12 point Times New Roman font, with my name on the top and corresponding page numbers at the bottom, was the writing sample I was submitting as part of my application to Master of Fine Arts programs in Creative Writing. I had thought about if MFA degrees were worth it in the past — wondering if they would truly help me to accomplish my goals.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The thought of what I wanted originally became as appetizing as cold pizza for breakfast.
The thought of change has been a constant during the pandemic. A poll, conducted this past July by The Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, indicated that one in three workers in the U.S. under 40 were thinking about a change in occupations or fields of work, with one in five workers overall considering a change in their professional lives.
“If you come out of the pandemic the same as you were, you’ve missed an opportunity to evolve and grow as a person. I just realized I needed to do better.” — Orlando Saenz of Austin, Texas, in an interview with The Washington Post, August 16, 2021
I’m not the first to think about changes and next steps in their lives during this pandemic, nor am I the first to ask about it. It was a question that was asked by many in abundance to Katie Hawkins-Gaar, a freelance journalist based in Atlanta who writes the newsletter My Sweet Dumb Brain. Hawkins-Gaar knows the subject of change well, and recently reflected on it as well as opportunities for clarity during difficult times. For Hawkins-Gaar, the death of her husband, Jamie, in 2017, was a prompt for change in her life.
However, as Hawkins-Gaar observed in a recent edition of her newsletter, the million dollar question always remains — we know change is needed, but how can we make the right kind of change happen?
“Becoming a freelancer, having a baby, and returning to Atlanta were all things that I was fairly certain I wanted to do when confronted with how maddeningly short life can be. For me, the catalyst to make big life changes was obvious: Jamie died, and everything in my life was suddenly different. My timeline was prescribed, too; mental health experts suggest waiting six months to a year after the death of a loved one before making any big and permanent changes.
But for many of us, the catalyst and timeline for change might not be as clear. Instead, we feel a vague and aggravating sense of unease, the idea that something is wrong, but no clue as to what alternative might be right.”
— Katie Hawkins-Gaar, My Sweet Dumb Brain, August 24, 2021
The question of transitions and change, especially in the midst of a pandemic, can be a tricky one to answer, especially for those whose works are based within creative endeavors. Yet, the idea of change can be started with inspiration.
In my case, inspiration came through words — journalism and literature. I revisited the works of the Canadian author, journalist and broadcaster Stuart McLean during the pandemic, and it gave me a curiosity to tell stories of meaning in journalism, but dabble with a bit of fiction.
In addition, I also credit the columns of Laura Yuen, a longtime journalist who is now a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and whose desire to go beyond the daily headlines was a reminder to me that such work is not only essential, but more of it is necessary in a time where the culture of a 24/7 news cycle is the norm.
It was this type of work that I wanted to do, and the kind of work that could be the great basis of my contribution to journalism, no matter what form it ends up. I long wondered in the midst of frustration and a fickle industry what the right path was for me, and it took a pandemic to find it. Now, it’s just trying to make it work.
I don’t have a magical guide for making change happen, as everyone’s experience is different. However, I know three things that might shed some insight.
Change is something that will not happen overnight. Change cannot happen with the snap of a finger. Yet, change is not impossible to accomplish, and what can help one along the pursuit of change is inspiration— only if you know where to look.
Good luck, and to borrow the email sign-off of an industry colleague, onward.
