Thank you for reading it, I'm glad you found my substack! I checked out yours, and read your first (great) essay. I am looking forward to reading more.
I’m a former academic too, though I never had a single defining moment when I decided to leave. It was a slow accumulation of circumstances. Something I’ve been considering is how much in our culture we associate a calling with a job, with what we do for a living. I’ve know for all my life that writing is my calling, but I’ve often struggled because making a living at the kind of writing I want to create is very hard to do. Often that’s led me to feel either guilty when I write because it doesn’t make money, or frustrated when my work isn’t tied my calling. It’s helped me to try to separate my calling from what I do to make money. I’m trying to see my calling as the thing I have to do to be who I am, and work as what I do to meet my obligations to care for those I love. I still want my work to be meaningful; I just no longer expect it to be what matters to me most deeply. At this point, are those things still connected for you, or do you see them as separate?
Thank you for this comment. While I acknowledge that bringing home the bacon and doing what you love are different things, I was previously able to do this in a single job and now I am not. And figuring out what to do with that new normal is turning out to be tough
The loss connection between my calling and my work still haunts me sometimes. Part of me still hopes one day to bring them together. But releasing the expectation that they will--accepting that writing may never make money but knowing that I still want to do it anyway--has also freed me too. I hope you find a path connects those for you again.
Oh paid subscriptions works for some people, I’m sure. And I hope you’re one of them! In my case, though, when I think too much about that I end up being preoccupied with what people will like versus what I feel the need to say. But for you those two may naturally overlap, in which case you get the best of both worlds.
Really appreciate reading your story. Also very recently left academia, so I'm excited to follow your writing!
Thank you for reading it, I'm glad you found my substack! I checked out yours, and read your first (great) essay. I am looking forward to reading more.
So glad we are connected, Liz!
I’m a former academic too, though I never had a single defining moment when I decided to leave. It was a slow accumulation of circumstances. Something I’ve been considering is how much in our culture we associate a calling with a job, with what we do for a living. I’ve know for all my life that writing is my calling, but I’ve often struggled because making a living at the kind of writing I want to create is very hard to do. Often that’s led me to feel either guilty when I write because it doesn’t make money, or frustrated when my work isn’t tied my calling. It’s helped me to try to separate my calling from what I do to make money. I’m trying to see my calling as the thing I have to do to be who I am, and work as what I do to meet my obligations to care for those I love. I still want my work to be meaningful; I just no longer expect it to be what matters to me most deeply. At this point, are those things still connected for you, or do you see them as separate?
Thank you for this comment. While I acknowledge that bringing home the bacon and doing what you love are different things, I was previously able to do this in a single job and now I am not. And figuring out what to do with that new normal is turning out to be tough
The loss connection between my calling and my work still haunts me sometimes. Part of me still hopes one day to bring them together. But releasing the expectation that they will--accepting that writing may never make money but knowing that I still want to do it anyway--has also freed me too. I hope you find a path connects those for you again.
Thank you for this. Me too!
(I guess you're saying that switching to paid subscriptions here isn't the answer? 🙃)
Oh paid subscriptions works for some people, I’m sure. And I hope you’re one of them! In my case, though, when I think too much about that I end up being preoccupied with what people will like versus what I feel the need to say. But for you those two may naturally overlap, in which case you get the best of both worlds.
"vocational identity cracks like a confining chrysalis"--love this!