Writing About Writing

 

You know about my travel bucket list, which I am eager to indulge in a little this summer in this time between jobs. And of course I need to put in the work to research job openings and pursue employment opportunities. But I also hope to do a not insignificant amount of writing. So I want to share a little bit about that today.

Writing for me is creative expression, but it is also for figuring out what I'm thinking. So now is a time that critical for understanding what is important for me, so I can process career moves in ways that are true to me and impactful for wherever I end up.

With that in mind, I've decided to spend a fair amount of time each week writing autobiographically, without intent to publish or even polish. I'll list below the prompts I plan to use to do this.

Then, once I've barfed everything out of my head, I will review for patterns. Are there through lines that I would not have otherwise seen had I not put everything down on paper? And if so, where might those through lines go next, that would inform my job search?

Whether these musings ever see the light of day, either in a blog or a book, is to be determined later. I'll probably keep most of it close to vest, at least during the creative process. But don't be surprised if I leak a few things out, whether to test some content out or to invite others to recall a shared memory that is funny or poignant.

OK, having established all that, here's how I'm going to organize my writing time. First, I'm going to stream-of-conscious different phases in my life, describing different things I remember from those phases, without regard to whether they make any sense, hold any deep meaning, or connect to anything else. So, that's probably going to break like this:

1. Childhood (1973-1984)

2. Middle school and high school (1984-1991)

3. College (1991-1995)

4. Post-college pre-wedding years (1995-2000)

5. Post-wedding pre-parenthood years (2000-2005)

6. Grad school, 1st 2 adoptions (2004-2007)

7. Pre-Principal years (2006-2012)

8. Making partner, adopting Asher, not adopting a 4th child (2013-2017)

9. School Board (2018-2021)

10. Becoming president, post-president years (2020-2026)

Second, I'm going to stream-of-conscious different topics that are important to me, again without regard to comprehension or polish. Of course, there will be a lot of overlap with the first list, which is intentional. I figure approaching my life in two different ways, and then looking it all together, will be a good way to see the connections and themes. Specifically:

A. Adoption 

B. Cities 

C. Consulting 

D. Economics 

E. Faith 

F. Friendship

G. Leadership 

H. Marriage

I. Parenthood

J. Personal Habits 

K. Politics/Society 

L. Pop Culture 

M. Race/Culture

N. Real Estate 

O. Upbringing

In closing, I should note that this blog, "Musings of an Urban Christian," is borne of a sort of inflection moment similar to the present one, in that I took a pseudo-Sabbatical from my first job seven years in, working from home to stand up the organization's nascent consulting practice, and the distance from the day-to-day in-office hustle and bustle afforded me some time to reflect through writing. From which this blog was first conceived and launched. Who's to say what outward-facing writing project this year's project will yield? You'll read about it here first!