Title: Life Progression – An Update on Anarchy
Synopsis: In a world where an aspiring novelist is also a faithful nanny by day, doggedly determined student by night, events unfold that place her writing aspirations on hold. That is, until a major life event changed everything. ***NOT a New Story (I just like being dramatic ;D).***
A/N: This is NOT a new story, nor is it a story update. Apologies to those who got their hopes up! However, this is an update on my life.
Disclaimer: If you have not figured it out from the two previous disclaimers, this is not a story. As a reader, I've always hated when an author I follow posts something, and my little heart leaps at fresh material, only to be met with an informational post. I swore that I'd never do that to my readers, yet here I am… I can, however, promise to make this as quick, painless, and entertaining as possible. Cool?
HERE GOES…
ANARCHYFORHERCHAOS
Hi. If you haven't noticed my glaring absence from the Fanfiction world in the past few months, you probably the patience of a saint. While I absolutely loathe excuses, I am a firm believer in explanations followed by actions.
In August of this year, I found myself starting my last semester of college and working a dead-end job that I hated, strictly for the money (and amazing insurance lol). When I quit the same job three years ago, I swore that I would NEVER willingly go back into such a soul-sucking environment, but life demanded that I get a job for the summer to make money for books and tuition. So, with my pride bound and gagged in my purse, I walked back into my old job and asked for employment. Due to this company's fast turnover rate, I was re-hired immediately. With an end date in mind, it made the job in its entirety much easier to bear. I worked a set schedule for months that I didn't hate, all the way through August and the first week of September. However, with my shitty immune system and migraine-riddled brain, it wasn't long before I found myself with a first-and-final write up. At a loss for a way out, still dealing with cluster migraines, in addition to the added stress of my last semester before graduation, I was floundering. You see, when I'm stressed out, my body starts to break down. Seriously. The more that I worried and stressed over work and classes, the worst my health was.
Then one day I left work early. I could feel a bad migraine coming on after lunch, and I thought "WTF am I still doing at work?! I cant get jack shit done with a migraine, and I have a paper due tomorrow that I haven't even freakin' started…" So I signed out, suffered a death glare from my boss, and went home. When I got home, my mom was on the phone with my older brother. He and his wife were stuck between a rock and a hard place. You see, they both had great jobs (elementary school teacher and refinery worker) that paid great, but with a 12 year old, 6 year old twins, and a 17 month old infant, not to mention student loans and what have you, they couldn't exactly afford daycare. My brother was considering quitting his job to stay home with the baby, but that would make money real tight lol.
So, my genius of a mother dropped the perfect solution in our laps. That conversation went a little something like this:
"Son, you can't quit your job right now. Your wife is just starting out as a teacher, and we all know that teachers get paid crap. Y'all need two incomes right now so that you can start paying of (insert plethora of bills)." Here, she paused to take a long look at my prodrome symptom face, and continued, "Your sister hates her job, and the stress of school and work is making her sick. I know! Why don't y'all just pay her to be your nanny?! This way, you know that Baby's well taken care of, and you give your sister some income on the side! Problem solved!" Mom breaks her elbow to pat herself on the back while grinning smugly*
Insert silence while all parties think the situation through for all of 30 seconds…
In unison, we both said incredulously "Oh my gosh! That actually works!".
Later that evening, I received a phone call from my gushing sister-in- law, who was absolutely thrilled with the whole arrangement. We worked out the minutia of pay per day and Baby's needs, and agreed that I would start on the following Monday. The next day, I walked into work and turned in my badge and headset, along with my letter of immediate resignation.
I'd like to say that it all worked out perfectly with rainbows and glitter and a unicorn or two lol, but it wasn't that easy. While my daily environment was way less toxic, I quickly realized that I knew babkas about babies. What followed was a crash course session on all things childcare for children under 2, and me realizing that you cannot get anything productive done while chasing a toddler. Literally. I learned that a restful naptime for Baby equated to me running around, setting my house back in order and squeezing in three classes worth of college course load work into an hour. I was just as exhausted at the end of a day spent nannying and going to school at night, than I was while working by day/schooling by night. But I was happier, more fulfilled than ever before. Baby brought a lightness to my days that I was desperately missing before.
After about a month of this chaotic schedule, and failed essay, I realized that something had to give. Again. So, I quickly adjusted to completing all coursework at night, staying up as late as 4 am to finish it, and spent my days hanging out with Lil Dude. Fun times, I tell ya! But it worked.
A word problem folks: A writer spends her days from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm nannying. Her evenings and nights, from 5:30 pm until around 2:00 am, are spent at school or working on school work. She sleeps from about 2:00 am until 8:30 am. When does she actually write?
The answer: She doesn't write. It is an impossibility to add more hours in a 24 hour day, folks!
Sadly, my passion was shoved to the back burner for over four months. It sucked.
This is where I tell yall some great news. I GRADUATED COLLEGE! Freaking finally *whoop whoop* Yaaasss. After that monumental accomplishment, I decided to take a semester off. While I will still be a full-time nanny to Nephew, a job that I actually love, I will also have lots of free time on mah hands.
Please stay tuned for updates within the month. Also, while I was trolling Facebook the other day, I saw a contest that really piqued my interest called Midnight Delight: A Twilight New Year's Eve Contest 2018. Of course, I was interested, but I was busy sorting out my life post-graduation *grin*, so I decided not to enter and spaz out about it lol. However, I am working on a one-shot using the prompt from the contest that will post before the 7th (my personal deadline). I'm super excited to share this lil plot bunny with y'all, and also get back into the swing of writing! Even penning this "announcement" has my creative juices flowing *rubs hands together evilly*
My one pact this year was that I will never again let a single day go by without writing something, whether it be ffn, my original fic, drabbles… Y'all get the picture!
That's all folks!