The power of serendipity

When I was casting my mental net for a blog topic for this week, I kept coming back to this word: serendipity. It refers to the ability to make happy discoveries totally by accident when in fact you were looking for something altogether different. I recognize and cherish the role serendipity has played in my life. I have often quit a job, only to find a better one that I had no idea would turn up. Or I've started to write a story about one character, only to have a minor character shoulder his way in to the lead. Most of the discoveries I've made, the happy events in my life, I found when I was looking for something else. And because it has worked out well for me in the past, I've not been afraid to take risks.

So I announced to the world recently that I am taking a huge risk by walking away from tenure and a good job teaching college English. I'm going to quit my job, move on my boat and write. But now, the voices in my head have started up. If you're a writer, you know what I'm talking about. What if my books don't sell? What if my boat sinks? What if I run out of money and wind up destitute and dependent on others. Do I have the courage to sail off without much support? As a writer, the "what if" is my métier. Bottom line: I'm scared.

This past Monday morning, I had an email in my inbox from a textbook company head honcho suggesting I apply for a job as their New Media editor developing online content. With money for travel and the possibility of telecommuting from my boat in the islands, I thought, wow, this is another example of serendipity. I decide to take early retirement from this good teaching job and another super cool job (for this iPad loving, e-everything techaholic) comes along.

Then last night after class, a student came up to me after everyone else had left. He wanted to talk to me about his own writing. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to be a writer — if he had the "right stuff." He said, "It's so clear that you have such a strong passion for writing."

I paused and said, "I do."

"Yeah, well, that really comes across in your class. I think you have to have that to be a writer."

That night as I walked out to my car, I thought, yes, I know that's what makes me a good teacher of writing, but he didn't say it's what makes a good teacher.  Teaching writing wrings all that passion out of me and leaves so little left over for my own writing.  He was talking about being a writer. That has always been my dream: to move onto my boat and write.

I want to give full time writing a shot. And no matter how much it scares me, it's worth it to try. As Mark Twain said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear."

So while casting about for the answer to the question of whether I should apply for another job in education, I found the answer when I was not even looking for it. That's serendipity.

Fair winds!

Christine

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