Back in a Familiar Place

I am a big believer in the Universe – “the Universe” being a generic catch-all term for the magical things that happen in life, such as signs or opportunities or warnings. I even believe that the Universe can sense when you’re experiencing too much happiness or too much of a good thing and can “audit” your happiness, giving you strife or hardship to balance out the good times. And while that’s probably more a sign of trauma if you have a psych background lol, for me it’s been a quasi-replacement for the religious upbringing I eschewed in my early 20’s. Long story short I believe that some things are meant to happen. For example when I was a student at community college I took a tour of the Cal State Channel Islands campus, and while I was there I had a very strong gut instinct that I could see myself there. I felt like I was meant to be there. Sure enough I applied, was accepted, enrolled, and spent two of the best years of my life at that school. I met my now-husband living in the dorm room next door. Many years later (and many years ago now) I had the same feeling when we toured the house that we ended up buying. Even house number and street name were meaningful to me and my life.

Two years ago, five days before Christmas, I was fired from a job at a company I’d been with for almost eight years. I had built a life in that job and it had taken over my identity. When it was taken away form me cold turkey, I experienced what I can only guess is what one experiences when they go through a breakup with a person they’ve been in a longterm relationship with. It took months to overcome the many layers of feelings I had from that experience, and it completely derailed my life, not to mention my income. In the time since that day, I’ve worked hard to adjust my life to having less. It was the highest paying job of my life and it was the kind of pay that was life changing for a young family like mine. Alas, it came to an end, and I more or less landed on my feet at another job. Well a few days after Christmas just last week/year in 2025, I was informed my hours were being cut to part time. Once again my income was being cut in half, and naturally it upset me.

But then I started picking up on a few things. Before finding out about my hours being cut I began to set goals and resolutions for myself in the new year – notably that I wanted to spend more time on my writing/publishing and all the marketing that goes with it so that I can be more financially minded about my work. Since I began self-publishing I’ve not allowed myself to feel like I’m monetizing my writing or pushing things for the sake of making money, because for me it’s enough that one person is reading anything I’ve written. I’ve been publishing for about 14 years now and I’m in a completely different chapter in my life than I was back then. Why not try to focus more on the selling and marketing side of what has essentially been a hobby? So the Universe said OKAY.

I reworked the budget and you know what? It’s not catastrophic. We can survive. So I started thinking about this change not as a negative but as a positive. What if this is the Universe opening up a pathway for me to commit time to my writing and all that goes along with it? What if this is my one and only opportunity to take a chance on being a Part Time Writer? Hasn’t this been a life goal for the past 14 years?

Luckily for me, my husband is on board. He knows how passionate I am about my writing, he knows how much joy it brings me, and he’s read my work. He’s a fan. So with a shift of my mindset I am now looking forward to my hours being cut in half. Yes it’s going to mean fewer extras but we’ve had a lot less, and we’ve had a lot more. I really in my heart of hearts feel like I am at this place for the first time in my life because I’m not just meant to be here, I am ready to be here.

I am really looking forward to this next chapter.