by Jamie Patterson
Even though it’s a little more than 20 years away, I joke sometimes that I can’t wait to be retired so I can become a full time writer. I even have a countdown at one job that only requires 10 years of service and a minimum age for full benefits. The day I turn 52, I’ll happily submit my retirement request. My life is full now and I don’t often enjoy the studious leisure it takes for me to really write. I’m not complaining, though, there was a time in my life where the only thing I had was writing.
I would wake up, walk down to the coffee shop for a cup of coffee, return home, and write until dinner, only breaking to let my dog outside. If I hadn’t been newly married and then newly divorced and facing the largest paradigm shift in my life so far, it would have been heaven. I couldn’t see that, then, though. As it was, waking up and writing kept my focus, kept me out of bed, kept me moving toward a better place where I could work and be myself again. This focus on writing produced my first book and I worry sometimes that without the ability to wake up, walk to the coffee shop, go home and write, that there might not be a second, or third, or fourth book.
Sometimes I think of how interesting it is that the worst moment of my life also presented me with exactly the day-in-the-life I’m hoping to achieve again (but without the heartache). And then I think—as I scramble to keep up with two jobs, being a full time graduate student, and a newly-published author—that maybe that life of “get up and write” is closer than an early heartbreak or an early retirement. Maybe it’s a matter of making a choice and making it happen…Perhaps after I finish the big project at work, or after I discover a better retirement plan, or after I graduate. Or…
I can’t wait to be retired.
Jamie Patterson is a writer, teacher, runner, and dog owner. She has a Master’s degree in Language and Literature, which provided the opportunity to study creative writing under author Michael Pritchett (The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A former spokesperson for the American Red Cross and the Girl Scouts, Jamie is a frequent flier based in Minneapolis, and an academic editor with Walden University. Visit with Jamie and learn more about her memoir of emotional abuse in marriage at www.lostedens.com.
Love the way you say it ” matter of choice and making it happen.” I too have been waiting for retirement to write again and have wasted about 3 years of writing time that I will never get back. So off it is to the computer and the thoughts that flow from fingers to keyboard.