Penny for your Thoughts

October 22, 2003, 5:31 p.m.
While we were in Vegas, J and I threw pennies into a wishing well. When I asked J what he wished for, he said, “that everything turns out exactly as it should.”

Here is what his wish has meant for us: Two days after coming home, I found out that I didn’t get the job I wanted. Initially, I was really disappointed, but after thinking about it (almost obsessively for the first two days), I realized that I wanted – needed – the push to move forward with freelancing.

For the past two years I have gotten comfortable relying on assignments from a small pool of editors. While I am endlessly grateful to have editors willing to work with me on a regular basis, I realized that a part-time job would only distract me from pursuing national markets, more lucrative assignments and focusing on writing about subjects that are of great interest to me. I didn’t get the job, but as Martha would say, that’s a good thing.

Being honest about what I wanted from my career also led me to quit a non-writing-related part-time job that I’d been struggling with for the past few months. The job drained me mentally and physically and it had begun to affect the quality of my writing. The decision to give up a regular paycheck was difficult, but in the end, I know it was the right thing to do.

While I was quitting, J was accepting a job offer. After 5 months of searching for work, J is getting ready to rejoin the rat race – and we couldn’t be happier. Of all the interviews he’s had over the past several months, this was the company he really wanted to work for. It’s a small company just 10 miles from home doing a job that only a geek would love. He starts Monday.

It was the perfect wish.