Oh dear, what have I got myself into?
Something you need to know about be is that I can be incredibly lazy. I know a lot of people say that about themselves when it's not true, but I seriously think I'm allergic to work, like normal people 9 to 5 kind of work. You know that song by Dolly Parton? Yeah, that scares the hell out of me. I'm idealistic and lazy, and that kind of work is just not for me. This is why I want to be an academic. My idea of "work" is when I spend three or four 12 hour research/writing days in a row, followed by a couple of weeks of "thinking time". I do consider thinking time to be working time, coming up with ideas, mulling them over, going to class and museums and movies and reading novels and watching BBC documentaries. All of these things are important to me when it comes to those intense days of work, but to most people it's nothing more than decadent leisure time, the kind of time people have to carefully plan for in the busy working lives.
Don't worry, I feel guilty about it. I know I'm living the life, and essentially avoiding "real" work. I really don't expect anyone to pay for me to live this lifestyle, and as much as I hope to someday be a famous scholar and professor at prestigious university, I really kinda don't want to work for anyone, especially a university. Most of my like-minded friends decided to become school teachers, which I would have done if I didn't have such a problem with authority and administration. I saw academic life as a life of freedom, but I'm not so naive these days; I know I won't be able to get through my entire life without it being taken over by work.
I really just don't like people telling me what to do. I know what I need to do and I just need space and time to do it. I'm a huge brat that way.
Bearing all of this in mind and adding the fact that I come from a long line of entrepreneurs (my great uncle invented the franchise system when he joined up with Colonel Sanders to start KFC, my great grandma owned a beauty salon, my grandparents owned a business building horse trailers, my mom started several business when I was growing up), plus the fact that I have a very like-minded sister with the same aversion to authority, and it almost seems inevitable that we'd try to start our own business.
And so now I'm in it, and it's just like a real job except that I'm not getting any pay (as of now). We've built a website, written a book, and work several hours a day trying to build an online presence, and now I must write content for a blog to post every single day. (It takes me hours just to prepare a post for this blog, and I only post about once a week.) Plus, you know, it is an editing business and we're hoping to get some clients so that I can do more work editing manuscripts.
Holy crap! What is going to happen to my museum days and matinée films and long leisurely walks through the city? On top of school, no less. And you know what's just around the corner? Spring, that's what. Spring and picnics and long leisurely walks through the park, and concerts and then summer is going to be here and how can I possibly work 8 hours a day in summer??
Oh goodness, it really is time for me to grow up and join reality, isn't it? Really though, I love Arch Editing, and I'm confident that it will work out. I love the website and the blog and the book and I love editing, and even if I do have to work 8 hours a day, I can start those 8 hours after I go to a museum, or I can take a 2 hour lunch to walk through the park. There is freedom in that.
No comments:
Post a Comment