Writing is a tricky business.

It is a career that my grandparents don’t quite understand, because I am not actually ‘doing’ anything or ‘making’ anything. I am sitting at a desk creating sentences out of ordinary words. It is unfathomable for them.

It is lonely. There isn’t a team of people helping me, unless you count the voices in my head and the characters that stalk me. Okay, so not quiet, but LONELY. And because I work remotely, it’s just me and my son Isaac, trying to concentrate and failing spectacularly. Alone.

It is creative, which automatically makes it hard to put a value on, hard to put a category on, and hard to continue when you’re just not into it. It’s not rote, routine, or regular. It changes every day, every assignment.

It is something I feel called to do, but I couldn’t tell you where that call came from or who will be in charge of taking attendance once I show up. And my start in writing felt fateful, with all the trappings of a good story: In grade 4 a boy named Adam was supposed to go to an enrichment course on writing, but he got sick and couldn’t attend. I was the runner-up in his place and when the teacher started talking about writing it was like all the light bulbs in my brain and heart turned on and would not shut off. I dabbled in writing throughout grade school and in high school decided without a doubt that I would be a psychologist, so I could help people. I thought it was a noble cause and I was a nice person, so it aligned nicely. But then my English teacher, Mr. J. Stutley walked passed the room I was filling out university applications in and asked me about my plans. He asked me to reconsider, to make English my thing, writing specifically, and to please, please, if I was unwilling to do it as my major, I should do it as a double major. I dropped psychology and committed to writing and I have never regretted it, nor questioned it.

Writing is a tricky business, but it’s mine. It’s where I fit. And whether or not I become a bestselling author or I remain in the obscurity of my basement, working on freelance projects while making sandwiches for my kids, it is who I am, no matter how slippery and tricky it gets.