I was going to call this "Revelations" but I thought that might seem offensive but now I can't think of anything else

This week has been a week of discoveries.  I have discovered what I think is a good strategy for advancing my writing career.  I even discovered a way to avoid a significantly awkward aspect of my job at TJ Maxx!

The worst part about working at my TJ Maxx is the men’s fitting room.  Dun dun dunnnnn.  But seriously.  By “men’s fitting room” the TJX Corporation means three ghetto closets closed by black doors with shuttered fronts.  God knows what they were thinking there.  They also have stiff locks and an annoying door bell noise that confuses our pigeon-like customers.

Two of out the three stalls in the men’s fitting room are pretty much the most thoughtlessly-designed spaces taking up less than sixteen square feet I’ve ever come across.  I don’t know exactly what that tells you.  I’m saying this because these two previously-mentioned heavy doors open inwards.  Instead of opening towards the outside so I can happily present the customer to his luxurious changing station. 

For the last five years, I’ve had to hold the burdensome door open at an awkward angle to be as far away from the customer as possible when he squeezed by me.  Often narrowly avoiding a breast swipe. Not for lack of trying on their part.  In case you wouldn’t have guessed, I don’t want to be within five feet- let alone one foot- of most of these men.  A lot of them smell funny.  More than that don’t understand that I’m contractually obligated to say hi and be friendly; and I am not, in fact, flirting with them.

My solution is to utilize another flaw of these fitting rooms to let them in.  Despite their ridiculous weight, the doors don’t close on their own.  Unless you slam them shut, they stay ajar.  So I realized I can just unlock the door and let the men push it open for themselves.  Hurray!  My bubble can remain intact.

This probably seems like a lame ending after all that verbose build-up, but it’s the little victories.

Now, on to important things.  My career.

I’ve decided I’m going to think of myself as a writer.  As in a professional.  To think of it as my job.  That’s it.  I feel mentality is important.

This may seem silly and obvious.  Not a solution, really. 

But I’ve never actually had that mindset before. 

In college, school work and my extracurriculars formed my job.  I sat in the library or a café or my house/dorm and did my work.  Of course it didn’t always feel like work.  It felt like fun.  Maybe this mentality is just an expression of my love for my college life.

But I got a similar feeling Tuesday when I was sitting in Barnes and Noble working on a music review.  It felt almost like I was working on an essay or a story back in the good old days. (What has my life come to when I miss homework?)  Then, it all hit me.  Not thinking of myself as a career writer is holding me back.  Just because I love it doesn’t mean it can’t be work.  I just have to sit down and do it.

So I’m going to.  Writing is now my third job.  Maintaining this blog is part of that position.  Maintaining my new portfolio page too.  And it feels good.  I feel more motivated to work on my short stories every week.  To seek out freelance assignments.  I’m very optimistic.  And I’ll post links to my new sites later.