A Self Introduction for My Illumination Community

I meant to keep this short. It didn’t work out that way

Hi, fellow Illumination writers, readers, and editors! At the suggestion of Dr Mehmet Yildiz, creator of Illumination, here’s a little something about me.

I live in the Chicago suburbs with my husband, daughter, and two pugs. We’re currently all together all of the time, due to the global pandemic.

This is both a blessing and a curse, as I’m sure many of you can relate to.

A Kansas girl

I was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. As a child, I read everything I could get my hands on, Nancy Drew, Little House on the Praire, The Chronicles of Prydain. This was long before Harry Potter. Had that been around in my time, I’m sure I would have been hopefully awaiting the arrival of my Hogwarts letter every summer.

I wrote often and with the bold confidence of a child. That confidence disappeared somewhere along the way. And then, growing busy with life, the writing stopped. I went to college, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and then my Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Big city, here I come

After school, I moved to Chicago, married my college sweetheart, and embarked on my career. Which turned out to be much harder and quite a bit less fun than I had expected. The career I mean, not the marriage. The marriage was fun. Yet, come to think of it, also harder than expected. I’m sure my husband wouldn’t disagree.

After some trials and errors, I landed a much sought after job at the Chicago-based corporate headquarters of a worldwide corporation. If you’re old enough, you may recall the illustrious global accounting firm, Arthur Andersen.

It was a big deal to land this job. And an equally big deal when the entire company with 85,000 employees operating in 84 countries collapsed due to a paper shredding controversy. If you can remember Arthur Andersen, chances are, you also remember the Enron scandal.

Long story short, thanks to paper shredders in Houston and indictments from the Department of Justice, I had to say goodbye to my first real job. My cushy, corporate job full of fancy lunches, a roomy cubicle with floor-to-ceiling windows, and free gourmet coffee always available in the beautiful breakroom that overlooked the city.

And, if you’re curious, I don’t even know where our office kept the paper shredders. I was an innocent bystander in the debacle. In any case, it was a good job that employed a lot of innocent people that suddenly found themselves unemployed.

Disillusioned by corporate greed, although very much missing the fancy lunches, I decided a change was in order.

Next up, I worked for an electrical contractor located in the suburbs where I learned drafting and lighting design. I loved this job. I loved watching an idea turn into a design and finally become a finished building where people worked or shopped.

The lunches weren’t fancy, but they were delicious. Lovely, big Chicago-style lunches of deep-dish pizza and Italian beef sandwiches.

Another setback

And then came the recession of 2008. A small blip compared to today, it was huge back then. I kept my job but with little new construction, there was little room for growth. Morale was low and the job became a lot less enjoyable, at least until things began to turn around and the economy started improving.

Around the time things were looking up, I decided to quit to have a baby.

Extremely fulfilling personally, and nothing I will ever regret, stopping work in the middle of prime wage-earning years, pretty much ensures you’re done. Women do go back after taking time off. But it’s a struggle. After missing out on years of software updates, building code changes, and new energy requirements, to go back to the electrical job would have meant, essentially, starting over.

I chose full-time motherhood. And I was fortunate to have that choice. I’ll never take that for granted.

Freelance writer and a stay-at-home mom

As fulfilling as being a mom is, I missed having a place in the world of grownups. Somewhere towards the end of my daughter’s second year of full-time school, I gave freelance writing a try. Although never a professional writer, I had written research papers for my master’s degree. And each job I had involved a fair amount of business writing.

Also, I never stopped reading, which everyone says is the key to writing. Not to mention, the ceaseless running commentary I’ve got going on inside of my head every day. The challenge is forming that running commentary into an actual article that hopefully offers some value to someone.

Writing for Medium

Originally I came to Medium because I needed published work to get work. You know the drill. You can’t get published unless you’ve been published.

A few articles later, I became hooked. That was last November. Six months later and 86 stories down, I think I’m here to stay.

Freelancing from home can be a solitary business. But I’ve found a community here on Medium. It’s a unique place to be and I’m glad I discovered it.

Other interests

You may have noticed, I keep mentioning lunches. Obviously, I’m a fan of food. Lucky for me, I like to exercise, primarily running. I also enjoy swimming, yoga, and hiking.

Since quitting my job and staying home full time I’ve discovered a love of cooking and gardening. And there’s more: movies, books, tv shows, seeing friends, eating out, taking walks, time with family, my silly dogs.

There is so much good in life. I try to remember that on dismal days when I’m weary of social distancing. Days when I don’t know how long it will be before my daughter gets to see her grandparents again. Days when the fear of this pandemic closes in on me.

Writing samples

And now we come to the end of my story. I’ll leave you with some writing samples. Ignoring all conventional wisdom to find my niche, I have an eclectic sampling of articles to share.

If I have a niche at all, it’s running.

Sometimes I feel compelled to write about environmental topics.

I also enjoy writing about writing.

And sometimes, I try humor. This was the second story I published on Medium. It was meant to be a light-hearted take on the misery of suddenly finding yourself middle-aged when in your heart, you know you are actually a young and cool 25 years old. I don’t know why, but my silly article triggered a few people.

One wild day I decided to write a poem! And it was even curated, much to my surprise. I mean that. I was really surprised.

I had intended to keep this short. Who wants to spend this much time reading about my mundane life? But here it is hovering slightly over 1,300 words. Yikes! I’m sorry.

If you’ve made it this far, wow, you’re the best. Thanks for listening.

I hope to see you soon, my new Illumination community!