A Dream Deferred

How often do we get asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” as a child and have adults laugh in our faces? Happened to me a lot, dear reader.

Buckle up and grab a drink, ’cause this is my story of how I went from laughee to laugher and how a childhood dream prevailed.

As a kid, I LOVED to read. Like REALLY loved to read. You’d rarely find me without my head in a book. I also liked to write — poetry, short stories, even papers for class. And my teachers told me I was pretty good at it (and I won a few local and state competitions for writing). And I loved all of it. So much so that I would proudly proclaim that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.

But somewhere along the way, I let those adult naysayers dissuade me from my first love. As it started getting closer to college, when I told people I wanted to be an English major and a writer, I was met with smirks and proclamations of, “There’s not much money in that.”

And so I believed them, thinking that I had to sacrifice my passion for something that would rake in the big bucks. As a gifted student, I excelled at many things, including the sciences, so I landed on molecular biology and genetics as my major and headed off to college — a far cry from writing. But I kept my passion in my back pocket, declaring English as my minor.

BIG MONEY PROSPECT MAJOR = BIG MISTAKE

Cue freshman year: In short, epic failure. The only classes I loved and excelled in were a couple of English classes I was fortunate to have. Get this one — I even took a class called Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Riveting. I loved those smelly original Webster’s dictionaries we’d have to wear gloves to view in the special collections room. After wandering aimlessly between majors for the rest of my first year, against all those warnings of, “There’s not much money in that,” I bravely filled out the requisite forms to doom myself to a life of financial struggle and declared myself an English major.

I happily and somewhat successfully made my way through my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, both in English, with a passion for Early Modern English Literature. Not familiar? Think Shakespeare and friends, though I much prefer Kit Marlowe. Fight me. I even had the opportunity to teach composition classes as part of my master’s degree — something I loved doing.

Master’s degree now in hand, I had to make some choices. Find a job? Ph.D. program? Against what I sometimes still think is my better judgment, I chose the Ph.D. program, moved 1,000 miles south from Michigan to Arkansas on a whim, and enrolled in the English Ph.D. program at the University of Arkansas. Go Hogs!

Friends, my Ph.D. wasn’t easy. And it took me about 15 years to complete, with seemingly impossible setbacks along the way. Family tragedies, deaths, illness. It had it all. And I started working full-time at the University of Arkansas about four years into my degree, giving me a stable income and further paying for my eventual degree completion but slowing down my degree progression.

I still think I may hold the record for the longest degree completion time for a continually enrolled Ph.D. student. I may need to get proof of that. If you’re at all curious, my dissertation is entitled “From the Womb to the Word: Pregnancy and Pregnancy Metaphors in 16th and 17th English Literature.” Not my finest work, because, at the end, I just needed to get it done. As they say, the best dissertation is a finished dissertation. No other promises besides that. Because let’s be honest, I also never had any intentions at that point to be an English professor at a university somewhere because I was enjoying my other work at the University of Arkansas.

But anyway, I walked across the stage during the pandemic, earning my Ph.D. in December 2020. All that work for 15 years and having to wear a mask at my ceremony and little pomp and circumstance because we had to basically run in, run across the stage, and run out. Ah, achievement.

By the time I graduated, I had been employed full-time for over 10 years in various roles at the University of Arkansas — nationally competitive scholarships, admissions, and student success — rising from the ranks of an assistant director to interim assistant dean to program director. I liked my work and got to use some of my writing skills, but not enough. But I also was making a pretty good living. Gasp, an English major making a comfortable living, I know! “The horror! The horror!”

While my work was challenging and sometimes fulfilling, I was missing a creative outlet. I wanted to write more. But I was also interested in exploring ways that I could possibly write and make some money. I have a lot of student loans, yo. Anything to help me pay those down…

July 2018: I was sitting on the couch mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, and I saw a CNBC article about Alexandra Fasulo and her journey as a copywriter on Fivver. I had heard of Fiverr but never looked too much into it. I read her story, a 20-something who left her corporate job and was making six figures copywriting on Fiverr. Now there I was, 38, almost a Ph.D. in hand in English, and a love for writing. I immediately said, “I can do that.” There wasn’t one second of hesitation in my mind. And that’s where my journey into freelancing started.

Over the next three hours, I feverishly looked at other Fiverr sellers’ profiles, crafted my profile, and put up a few gigs: social media content and management, editing, press release writing, and a catchall writing gig. Mind you, I didn’t really have much experience doing any of these for someone else besides editing. But I had faith in myself and knew I was a fast learner. I’d learn on the fly. And that’s what I did. I got my first order within a few days, and it grew from there.

Copywriting and ghostwriting were exciting to me, and they still are now four and a half years later. I don’t niche down my services, mostly because I’m a curious person. I love the challenge of getting a project from a client, learning more about that niche through research, and curating copy for them. There are, of course, niches I am more knowledgeable in, but I’ve never wanted to limit myself. It keeps things interesting.

From 2018 to August 2022, I juggled my full-time university job and Fiverr, devoting about 15 hours a week to Fiverr. It was growing, and I saw the possibility of growing even bigger. I eventually became a Fiverr Top Rated Seller and then a Fiverr Pro — the highest level you can achieve on the platform. This growth and the pandemic helped me put things into perspective, and I realized I didn’t want to work full-time for someone else anymore. I wanted to control my work hours, what projects I worked on, and how much money I could make.

I focused very intentionally on growing my business in the summer of 2021, with the goal of exceeding my university income so that I could then consider leaving my full-time job there. And that intention worked. During every month beginning August 2021, my income grew exponentially, and I also started getting clients off Fiverr as well. I felt comfortable enough (because I’m not a huge risk-taker) to leave my full-time university job at the end of July 2022. I’m still on part-time, mainly teaching because I love the University of Arkansas and being connected to the campus. But now I get to work there more on my terms and do the things I love versus having to hold a job there for the money. It’s a great feeling.

Fiverr has been good to me (though there are some non-seller-friendly things they need to work on), and I’ve connected with phenomenal people worldwide — clients and other freelancers — because of it. I currently make six figures a year, mainly from Fiverr (and by myself, may I add, though an agency is likely coming your way), with some income coming from clients I work with off Fiverr. I have huge goals to grow my business in 2023 — new gigs, new courses, new websites, new books, new resources for freelancers — so stay tuned.

The freedom and flexibility I have are fantastic. I can work the hours I want to work, and I can work from anywhere in the world.

Being able to make a very respectable living as a writer is a dream come true for me. While I don’t necessarily agree we have to monetize our passions, this is one passion I’m glad I did. There are days it’s hard, and I get projects that suck, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

And while I’m thrilled to be doing something I’m passionate about most of all, I’ll 100% admit, because let’s face it, I can be a bit petty and need to be right, there is a lot of satisfaction in making more than most of those people who told me all those years ago, “You can’t make any money as a writer,” or, “An English degree is a waste of money.”

When I think back to those times I said as a kid that I wanted to be a writer, I didn’t exactly think that websites, press releases, blogs, and other business-type writing would be the way I’d do it. But I love it, and it allows me to flex my creativity and critical thinking skills — and I still dabble in the more personal creative writing pursuits for my own pleasure. So I think Little Me would be pretty stoked because Big Me is.

And the other great thing is, I am still writing stories. I’m helping to share other people’s stories with the world. I’m helping them to make money and live out their dreams by giving them the words to show others how and why their dreams matter. It’s an honor and a privilege and something I don’t take for granted.

As the calendar rolls over to 2023, I’m excited for a year of new stories and new possibilities I never imagined all those years ago when I vowed to become a writer.