Feelin' Like a Pro (Holly Schindler)

I started out trying to remember the first time I ever got paid for some work. And then my mind drifted back a little farther...

To the first time I felt like a professional author. 

I entered a short story writing contest in the KC Star. Mom was dabbling in writing back then, and I was just obsessed. She encouraged me to enter. Said she was going to, and I should too. I was eleven. 

The first, second, and third-place winning entries were printed in the newspaper. When they ran, Mom hollered at me from the kitchen, all excited. I couldn't figure out why. Neither one of us got anything. 

And then she pointed to the piece about the contest. In the middle, they ran the stats: numbers of entries, farthest away entry. The youngest entry, they said, came from an eleven-year-old. And, they said, "the entry was surprisingly good."

"That's you!" Mom shouted. 

It was the first time someone who didn't know me said I was good at writing. 

It filled my sails, let me tell you. 

The thing is, we all have stories of awful, demeaning jobs. Jobs that made us feel small or less. Jobs where we put up with the treatment because we needed money. 

But there is other work, too. Work that sometimes pays in ways other than money. That builds us up in surprising ways. 

Those are some of the best jobs of all. 

~

Holly Schindler is the author of A Blue So Dark