I’m So Grateful!
March 12, 2008 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
Whew! This morning I took a friend to the doctor. She’s had a catarac removed and it will be a couple of days before she can drive. We decided to have breakfast and that put me on the road in the midst of the a.m. commute between here and there.
It’s a short drive, normally only about 15 minutes, but half an hour up the road there’d been an accident and the slowing traffic went on for miles as it will during peak traffic hours. And, as is almost predictable, someone pulled up behind me fast enough to make me wince, pushed his way through traffic passed me and, low and behold, was behind me when I exited 25 minutes later. I’ll bet he was pissed.
Breakfast was great and I sailed home on almost empty roads, ever grateful that freelance writing means I can avoid most commutes.
What do you like best about freelancing?
Write well and often,
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Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
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What I like about Freelance Writing is the FREEDOM.
There is a freedom to write what I want, for who I want, when I want!
And better yet, freelancing allows me NOT to write when I don’t want to, avoiding people I choose not to deal with, and not accepting the pay, or the lack of it, that “they” are offering.
Furthermore, freelancing affords me the freedom to wear what I want and only have me to sneer back at me… in the mirror.
Additionally, freelancing affords me the freedom and opportunity to work with people not in my limited neighborhood.
Kathleen
Well said, Kathleen… anyone else?
I went to a party at a very wealthy guy’s snappy (complete with a clay tennis court and a carriage house) home a couple years ago. We were all sitting on the veranda sipping expensive liquor when one of the assembled financial elite turned to me and said, “What do you do, John?”
I responded, “Why, Biff (or whatever his name was) I’m a freelance writer.”
Heads couldn’t have turned faster. These captains of industry wanted to know what I wrote, what it was like to be a writer, etc. Nobody asked how much money I pulled down. A handful of them said their dream was to retire and start a writing career.
In that moment, I knew what I liked best about being a freelance writer. I like the fact that I’m not sitting through some brutal, nine-to-five workday prying money out of the system doing things I don’t love. I like the fact that I have not willingly postponed my dreams. Like the old Travis McGee character, I’m taking my retirement in small chunks while I’m still able to enjoy it.
Was that Travis McGee? I actually lived on a houseboat in Sausalito for years… an ex boss said something like Anne didn’t wait for retirement, she just went and bought her retirement boat and… well, you get the idea.
John –
Well put.