Living Large In Our Little House

The Belle Writers Studio the Best Place I've Ever Worked

Saturday, October 31 was my Free Day.

I think it's fit­ting it's on one of my favorite hol­i­days. There’s been times when being on my own is a lit­tle scary, but mostly it’s a treat.

Eleven years ago, I walked away from a good, guar­an­teed salary, about 50 days off per year, a great health­care plan, a 401K, and the finan­cial abil­ity to stop at a travel agent on a whim and walk out with tick­ets to any­where for the week­end.
I also walked away from a 40 minute com­mute, gray pod walls that sur­rounded my gray desk, an online time clock that would drive any­one mad, an envi­ron­ment that told me when I could eat, what I could have at my desk to drink, what I could use to dec­o­rate my pod walls, the pres­sure of mak­ing quo­tas, a job that was turn­ing the cre­ative side of my brain to mush, a night guard I wore every night because I was grind­ing my teeth so hard I would lit­er­ally break them off in my sleep (I lost 2), and a pre­scrip­tion for anx­i­ety and depres­sion.
Yes, I walked away from a lot of mate­r­ial things, but I also walked into a world that’s afforded me expe­ri­ences I never could have imag­ined otherwise.

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