Mommy DeLight
enlightened motherhood, among other things – thought-provoking things to think about… :)
I am a Writer. I am a WRITER… I AM A WRITER!
I became an esthetician and ended up realizing my dream to become a “real” writer…
(Yes, my definition of a “real” or professional writer is one who gets paid to write.)
In the past week or so I have been writing more than usual. Great things are happening! So here is a bit on how I’ve gotten to where I am now (plus some other stuff)…
If you’re not interested, at least read the poem, by Frank O’Hara, below. It’s enjoyable even if you don’t like poetry. Really… It is… 🙂
It didn’t really cross my mind that going to school for five months to learn about skin care (a topic I’ve loved for a long time), would propel me into a dream-come-true writing/marketing career. I basically became a specialist in something, wrote good stuff about it, got people to read what I had written and proved myself as a writer. Suddenly, I found a bunch of open doors.
After graduating from the five-month skin care program at FCNH (Florida College of Natural Health), I was hired as a sales rep for a skin care line created by a well-known esthetician. The information available to our clients was mediocre by my standards. So I reworked most of the marketing content, pumping out product descriptions, training materials, scripts for cold calls and cover letters we sent to clients and prospects. I got a lot of writing experience, without much guidance. But I AM A WRITER, and ended up with some quality content. 🙂 One article I wrote is being published in a popular skin care magazine, and another magazine sent me a case study (click to read!), in which my solution was published! Head shots and everything. Oh yeah.
The best part is, now I’m going to get PAID to write! At a company I’ve loved for years. A company that I have watched grow from an itty bitty apartment, to a super cool house, to an office AND warehouse. And it’s going to be a big girl salary, with full time hours and benefits. I feel quite lucky… But I know I worked hard to get here and will continue to work hard and grow!
Need a facial? I’m still an esthetician! Skin care is something I hope to do for the rest of my life. WEAR SUNSCREEN! 😉 Don’t worry Dad, I didn’t waste your money…
Five months of vocational school turned my entire professional life around. It gave me direction, and allowed me to start my career in a bigger and better way than I ever thought possible.
So here’s my two cents… Keep your mind open, work hard, and network. Try to find a way to do what you love; if that won’t make you a living, find a way to do it on the side! Do what you think is best for you, because you only live once…
This is a poem I first read in 2007 while taking a poetry class at Pace University in NYC. I never really thought about why it stuck with me; it’s just a really cool poem, written by a really cool dead guy…
Frank O’Hara (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Why I Am Not a Painter
by Frank O’Hara
I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,
for instance, Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
“Sit down and have a drink” he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. “You have SARDINES in it.”
“Yes, it needed something there.”
“Oh.” I go and the days go by
and I drop in again. The painting
is going on, and I go, and the days
go by. I drop in. The painting is
finished. “Where’s SARDINES?”
All that’s left is just
letters, “It was too much,” Mike says.
But me? One day I am thinking of
a color: orange. I write a line
about orange. Pretty soon it is a
whole page of words, not lines.
Then another page. There should be
so much more, not of orange, of
words, of how terrible orange is
and life. Days go by. It is even in
prose, I am a real poet. My poem
is finished and I haven’t mentioned
orange yet. It’s twelve poems, I call
it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery
I see Mike’s painting, called SARDINES.
Mommy DeLight 