The Story of an Un-degreed Writer
Why I left College and Never Looked Back
Why I left College and Never Looked Back
When I was young and stupid I quit college. It was the smartest thing I ever did. You see, just over a year into college, I could tell I didn’t want my life to go where I had planned it to go.
I didn’t know where, exactly, I wanted it to go. But I knew I did not want it to go into the classroom, and since I had planned to be a teacher, that altered my education plans.
Unlike some cautious people who continue on with their college experience, perhaps changing degrees several times but still holding on and finishing. (Because that is the wise thing to do.) I just quit.
One day I was just like “HOLD THE PHONE, LIFE IS MORE THAN A CLASSROOM…I QUIT.” Just like that. Gasp. What did my parents say? Well, my dad was shocked, because I had always loved school. How would I be happy without it?
While he was busy wondering that, I was busy exploring my innermost self. I was starting to discover what I loved was learning, not school. I was beginning to realize that life has so much more to offer than the walls of a classroom. I was going to orphanages in Mexico and Guatemala and learning how seeing other’s lack first hand can absolutely break your heart with gratitude for all the things you have been blessed with.
Before long I knew what I wanted. I wanted a family of my own. I wanted a husband and lots of babies, and I wanted to homeschool them. I wanted to learn and grow inside of family and outside of the classroom.
It was not actually too long before I found that perfect-for-me guy. He also wanted a big family and was relieved to find someone who wasn’t really interested in a career outside the home. So we got married and got busy having babies.
I had six babies in eight years, no twins. It was exhausting and beautiful all at the same time. It was faster than we planned, but also exactly what we had dreamed of…a big family. I was learning and teaching and loving the time I had with them. (Disclaimer: I did have to work for a few stretches due to financial hardship, but for the majority of the time, I was at home.)
By the time my youngest was four, the writing itch had come back. I guess I failed to mention earlier that as a teen I had written over a thousand poems, then, in another fit of wisdom, I burned them all and stopped writing.
Anyhow, I started writing again. Just for myself at first. Then for a homeschool publisher, in exchange for access to online curriculum, not actual pay. Then for very, very low pay, but still I got a check.
What does getting the first check mean to a writer? It means you are meant to write.
“Write without pay until someone offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.” Mark Twain
It was less than three years before someone paid me, and I was only writing a bit each week. Weaving it into the fabric of my days raising and learning and exploring the world with my little gang.
Then I sold my first magazine article to a Homeschool magazine for $50 bucks. (Song and dance excitement.)
Then I sold another article.
I started a blog.
A few people read it.
I started cross-posting to Medium…a few more people read my stuff and I got some amazing comments.
I tried my first locked post from the seat of terror. I made two dollars, ecstasy.
I tried one of those places to get writing gigs…freelancer…hated it, felt it was a legalized form of scamming people…
I got one job for a technical write-up. 200 bucks for one page of writing. A complicated concept, explained so a 5th grader could understand.
It was exciting, although not as much as those first 2 bucks on Medium. I guess that is the difference between paid for the words that gushed out of your innards and being paid to create the words that someone else needs.
So here I am, I made around $30 the last few months on Medium. I sold a few more magazine articles for $75, slated to publish in 2019 and 2020, which means I will get paid for them in like 3 years.
Should I go back to school? Absolutely not. Please don’t torture me with such ideas. Then I would be obligated to earn a certain amount of money because I would have some sort of degree implying that I could write. Then I would be both qualified and tempted to take on some kind of boring writing job when my kids got older.
It is much better this way. With my freedom almost forced upon me. It is just the environment I need to be able to just go with my own words and see where they take me. This is a scary path.
It is sometimes tempting to go get some kind of regular freelance gig so I can make a steady check with it. But the truth is, I still have six kids, I am still homeschooling them, and if I write for someone else I won’t have much time left to write for myself.
It would just be a way of avoiding the 3 books I am currently writing. (If I publish 3 books at the same time does that mean I skipped my first book, which usually turns out to embarrass the author later in their career? Or will that mean I have 3 embarrassing books instead of one?) Current total word count between all 3 works-in-progress, 75,000 words. I know, I know, if I had just stuck to one book I would have it just about finished. But I just couldn’t.
So I am self-forced into the long slow path of writing what I want and figuring out how to make money off of that.
My gains may seem small to you, but I am overly ecstatic about them myself.
I track my income and to date, I have made $609.98 over the last 3 years. Keep in mind I don’t write full-time, my average is probably around 10 hours a week.
I want to share because I think this is a pretty normal path and starting trajectory. Although someone with more time to write may be able to build their income and following faster, it still takes time.
My story may just make you grateful that you have made a lot more money than me in the last 3 years of your writing career. Or it may make you think a minute before quitting a life-sustaining (as in it buys your food) job to try and “make it” as a writer.
I really enjoy the luxury I have on not needing to make money from my writing. But I still LOVE IT when I do make money. And I have plans to increase that income as the year’s pass.
If I did need to make money I would go write all the words the other people need to say as fast as I could, but I would still have to write my own words at the end of the day.
So that is my story. Writing is a skill. Did I need a college education to develop it? How far in the hole would I be if I had gotten one? If I made enough in the next few years from my writing would I go get a degree? Absolutely not, I would take my family on a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea, making sure we see some castles one place or another. To me, this would be a more rare and valuable experience than a college degree for mom. Who needs a degree when you have already proved yourself? And how much proof is a degree, anyway?
That’s just my story. Some professions still need that degree. I think writers are in a place where it is optional, and if you get it, you may spend your entire life writing other peoples words, because it is easier money. On the other hand, sometimes we need easy money, and writing other people’s words is still practicing your craft.
Are you an un-degreed writer? I would love to read your stories, feel free to link to them in the comments.
P.S. I am not in any way against education, I simply go about it more quietly and cheaply, by, get ready for the shocker…reading books.