Summary

Tina L. Smith is a creative writer with a rich life history, who has overcome poverty and personal challenges to become a successful author and professional, now sharing her diverse experiences through her writing on Medium.

Abstract

Tina L. Smith, born into a loving yet impoverished family in Detroit, has led a life marked by resilience, creativity, and a blend of pragmatism and passion. From her early days in a government housing project to her current status as a writer, she has embraced various roles including student, musician, entrepreneur, wife, mother, divorcee, and professional. Despite the challenges of her upbringing, Tina's family instilled in her a love for travel, business ventures, and the arts. Her determination led her to be the first in her family to graduate from college, where she found her calling in writing and editing. Tina's career has spanned from assistant editor to vice president of marketing communications, and when the economy crashed, she reinvented herself by working in medical research administration and starting her own business. As a mother, she prioritized family travel to broaden her children's perspectives. Recently, Tina has returned to her passion for writing, publishing on Medium and embracing the philosophy that she writes because she can't not write.

Opinions

Tina views her life experiences as foundational to her writing, emphasizing that every phase has contributed to her current work.
She believes in the power of love and creativity, as taught by her parents, and sees these values as integral to overcoming life's challenges.
Tina reflects on her childhood poverty with honesty, acknowledging the shame but also the love and laughter that filled her family life.
Her approach to life is a balance between creativity and practicality, which is evident in her educational and career choices.
She values the role of the church and family activities in shaping her character and her approach to life.
Tina regards her role as a mother as her most important and rewarding, and she has made intentional efforts to foster strong relationships with her children.
Her perspective on travel as a means to gain confidence and different perspectives has been a guiding principle in raising her children.
Despite the demands of her job and family life, Tina has always maintained a passion for writing, which she has now fully embraced in her later years.
She expresses deep appreciation and love for her current partner, with whom she shares both a personal and professional relationship.
Tina's outlook on writing is that of an essential, inescapable part of her identity, as reflected in her motto, "Everything but haiku."

About Me — Tina L. Smith

Creative pragmatist or pragmatic creative?

The author. Photo by Andy Greenwell, her main squeeze.

Towheaded little sister…Singer…Flutist…Serious student…Wannabe writer…Well-behaved rebel…Hard worker…Friend…Wife…Mom…Divorcee…Single mom…Leader…Helper…Partner……….Writer.

If I had to boil down my life, that would be the list. These are some of the phases and roles I’ve passed through in life, the culmination of which is “writer.”

I was born into a loving family that happened to have very little money. My parents and older brother and sister and I lived in a post-WWII government housing project in a Detroit suburb, in a poorly constructed house that was heated with a large space heater. We could see outside through cracks in the wall from the bathtub.

The author (blond in blue) and her birth family. Photo provided by author.

When I was 4, the house was condemned, and we were forced to move out. We lived in a 17-foot trailer parked in my grandparents’ driveway while my parents had a house built on property next to my grandparents’ house and moved in a week before Christmas, before the carpet was installed. Our Christmas tree sat directly on the subfloor, and we had to wear shoes to keep from getting splinters.

We had little in our childhood, but my family traveled across the country in a borrowed pop-up camper (thanks to one set of grandparents) and a borrowed car (thanks to the other set of grandparents). Family was everything. My siblings and I created numerous business ventures: hosting lemonade stands, pulling together an annual summer fair in my grandparents’ yard, and even publishing and selling the Children’s News, using a gelatinous slab (a hectograph) my mom bought for transferring ink from original pages to make copies of our weekly publication.

Some people say they never knew they were poor. We did. It was a point of constant shame, and yet, our family was filled with love and laughter was a way of life. From my dad, we learned frivolity, boldness, and the power of love. From my mom, we learned creativity, hard work, and tenderness. From both, we learned about devotion to God.

Our lives were deeply intertwined with our church. We were involved in every program our small church offered. Mom played the piano, taught Sunday School, and headed up missions education; Dad taught Bible classes and served as a trustee. My siblings and I became a singing group — the original Smithereens — and we traveled to other churches where Dad preached, Mom played piano, and we sang…in matching outfits, of course.

No one in my family on either side had graduated from college. I was determined to be the first, but, with few resources and no family “institutional knowledge” of college, I was intimidated. So I attended a commuter campus of the University of Michigan and worked a series of full and part-time office jobs while attending, taking six years to earn my bachelor’s degree.

I intended to get a degree in business administration, but hated all the required courses. So I switched to English literature as a major and took business as a minor (mostly marketing courses). It was exactly the right fit and the first and most telling demonstration of how I balanced creativity and practicality in my life.

My two lifelong best friends attended the same college, and we had adventures on campus, off campus, and on trips to Florida, California, and anywhere else the wind blew us. Our adventures were exceedingly mild in comparison to others, but I’ll wager that no one had more fun or laughed more than we did.

College graduation. Author (left) with friends. Photo provided by author.

In college, I developed writing interests and skills. I entered and won several writing competitions and published a few articles in local magazines. I had always dreamed of being a writer, but pragmatism and a fear of returning to poverty drove me to apply my skills in the business world. An internship at a magazine landed me my first full-time job as an assistant editor in the world of writing and editing.

From there, I followed a boss to an ad agency and worked as a copywriter, then moved to a company to become an in-house copywriter. Over the years, I took on more responsibilities and moved into management, which I seemed well suited to, to my great surprise. I enjoyed leadership, and wound up as vice president of marketing communications with a staff of 34 people for an information publishing company.

When the economy crashed in 2010, causing sudden unemployment for seven months, I reinvented myself as an administrator of a medical research program at the University of Michigan and started a freelance writing/editing and communications consulting business to augment my reduced income.

In my mid-20s, I met and married a man. The less said about him the better. It was a difficult relationship, and I was finally able to extricate myself safely from the marriage after 17 years.

However grim, the marriage brought me the very best role of my life: motherhood. My daughter and son are fun, smart, loving, happy, and creative people, and they have brought me more joy than I can ever describe. My daughter is fully independent and lives in Chicago. My son is entering his senior year of college. They amaze me daily.

As a single parent, I made family travel a priority. I often told my kids, “The world looks a little different everywhere you stand, and it’s good to stand in a lot of different places.” I wanted them to have the confidence that travel brings, as well as benefit of different perspectives. We traveled all over the United States, and I planned an individual trip with each child every year, too, so that I could devote special time to a relationship with each individually.

Author and family on a cruise in 2010. Photo by author.

In those years, life left no time for personal writing. With a demanding job, a home to care for, an ailing father, and a passion for being at every baseball game, cheerleading competition, and other activity, I ran at high speed 18 hours a day. I regret none of those exhausting days and savor every memory. I also have no idea how I did any of it.

We do what we need to do.

Almost seven years ago, I connected with a man on a dating site. We had almost nothing in common, except a powerful connection from the moment we met. He’s a world-class photographer from east central Illinois, and I quickly learned that working with him was fun and the best way for us to have time together. As my “mom” role became less demanding, my “partner” role grew.

Today, we share a home, where our commercial studio is co-located. We live and work together (while I still work full-time at the university and do freelance work on the side) and are deeply in love. He still makes my knees wobble. Finding such a love in my 50s was an unexpected and thrilling surprise. We appreciate and support each other’s creativity, and our skills are complementary.

Author and partner. Photo by Andy Greenwell.

Less than a year ago, I started writing again and publishing on Medium. First, on a lark. Then, like an addict, more and more and more. I felt that an untapped reservoir had been breached.

And suddenly all those varied life experiences I’ve collected, all those opinions I’ve formed, all those years when I’d turn phrases in my head and philosophize…they all came together and began spilling out onto my computer screen.

I write on every topic imaginable — whatever comes into my head when I sit down and put my hands on the keyboard. “Everything but haiku” is my motto.

Now, as my friend Tammy Remington Write says, “I write because I can’t NOT write.”

At last.

I’m honored for your interest in my background and my writing. I have had a blessed life in every respect and take none of it for granted. Thank you for reading About Me.