What Does Freedom Feel Like?
For better, or for worse, we measure our lives with numbers. I’m 46 years old. I've identified my dream of being a writer about 24 years ago and have daydreamed about writing full-time ever since.
For the past 22 years and 2 months my dreams of freedom swirled about in my head while I worked away as a project manager/forms designer in a cubicle for a local insurance company. All that time I wrote books, poetry, magazine articles, and blogs in my spare time trying my best to envision what the freedom of making a living at my passion would feel like.
The lot I park in for work is almost exactly 1 mile away from my employer’s building. Through the heat of summer and the brutal cold of the Minnesota winters, I’ve walked roughly 15,000 miles back and forth to my car in those 22 years and 2 months. To put things into perspective, 15,000 miles is the equivalent of 2.5 times the length of the Great Wall of China, 4 times the length of the Amazon River, and 5.5 times the distance between New York and Los Angeles. So many ideas for my fiction and articles were born on those walks.
The buildings in downtown St. Paul are connected by a system of skyways, so you can navigate the city without having to expose yourself to the harsh winter elements. On my lunches and my breaks I would walk through the skyways and think of ideas for short stories, novels, and poetry.
I likely would’ve lived the next twenty years of my life this way...daydreaming, if it wasn’t for one amazing stroke of luck. On July 5th, 2016 I joined Steemit. It took exactly 1 year, 3 months, and 18 days of writing on Steemit before I handed in my notice.
I’m thrilled to announce that, as of 4:15pm on October 13, 2017, my new life as a full-time writer begins!!
So, getting back to my original question…What Does Freedom Feel Like? In a way, it feels like graduating. I feel 90% elated, 10% scared out of my mind. This next phase of my life will take some adjusting to and will still require extremely hard work.
I kind of feel like Andy Dufresne from A Shawshank Redemption. After existing so many years within such a tightly structured corporate system, freedom will take some getting used to. I promise it will never be taken for granted.
I’ll be getting up every weekday morning with an alarm and planning my day to get as much done as I can. For the foreseeable future, my day will be filled with duties surrounding the HardFork Film Series, writing/curating much more on Steemit, and learning more about cyrptocurrency.
Where will this journey of life take me from here? I guess time will tell. One thing I’m sure of, from the look on his face, Amstel is happy that I'll be home with him all day!
Thank you Steemit, and thank you all for your ongoing support of my work! Remember, if I can do this, you can too. Write about what excites you. I'm living proof...Steemit makes dreams come true!
Please follow our official Steemit account for the film series @hardfork-series. We are thrilled to announce we'll be debuting the HardFork Film Series Teaser Trailer at SteemFest2 in Lisbon! Hope to see you there!
*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
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Congratulations Eric!! I should say that you were the very first Steemit success story that I stumbled on last summer. Your work with Alarm Clock Dawn really inspired me to take this platform seriously as a freelancer's resource and as a means to enhance my own craft and creativity. What an amazing ride it has become.
Cheers to the exciting journey ahead :)
Thank you, @voronoi! I'm so happy for your success here! The best part is I have a feeling the best is yet to come. Have a wonderful night.
How would you imagine the best scenario? What more is going to come to Steemit that would make it more interesting for writers like yourself and spectators from all over the world?
This is the first article I have read from you and I like the way you tell the story. Still I'm wondering how this writing can be a full time job... Sounds like a great way of life though ;-) Good luck on your next journey, the adventure! The world is at your feet
Congrats, was nice reading about your experience.
Still… rectangular lifes we live, with a systematically rectangular understanding of our surroundings and proper judgement. No drawers, no orientation and often we feel lost in possibilities. Even our weird understanding of freedom is as rectilinearly as the screen that I´m staring at right now.
I feel that you have made the right step for “the best to come” but please everyone do not celebrate leaving a corporate as freedom itself. If you don´t have a reasonable plan you will end up at the same desk surrounded by the same colleagues, same habits, same bills to pay for the same bullshit.
Free your mind, meditate and make your way step by step towards a healthy life for body & mind where your opinion is as less manipulated as possible, be aware of your own fallacy and you will recognize that freedom, as everything else, emerges from within.
And please Eric, don´t be home with Stella all day, go for a walk ;)
nice dream
Your last post has inspired me. About to make some big life changes. btw Im 50. Its never too late
I'm glad you connected with the post! You're right, as long as we have breath it's never too late!
50-50 2 .. we measure our lives.. with numbers!
Godspeed, Eric! The time i have remaining at Securian will be much less exciting without you around. That is until i can retire early too! Catch you later!
Thank you my friend! You’re going to be missed, we have a lot of years of memories. I have no doubt we’ll stay in touch. Your freedom post is coming soon!
Very wonderful Eric! I am so glad you made the break through to living free. I can relate to the desire to earn a living from doing what you love, writing.
I have always been a writer, but never schooled in it because I believed it would never make me any money. Turns out, now I'm adult, a BA in writing may have earned me some cred, rather than just starting out from the beginning, with no formal training...oh well, lol.
I am so glad I am able to show off being a writer, here on Steemit, and earning something from it. I have never published my works officially until now (and received payment). Steemit has incentivized and empowered me with the blockchain to release my works, which I am currently doing in poetry volumes.
If you like E.A. Poe, you might like my poetry. It is a bit dark, and filled with tragic romance, but - 'tis the season. :-) The Silence of the Yellow Bear - Sick Vol 6
Cheers to your accomplishments on here, Eric! I am so glad to see your dream of freedom, scary though it may be, realized. :-) I hope one day, I too may make a living doing exactly what I love - poetry, art & photography. :-)
Thank you @robyneggs! Making a living at writing isn't easy until you find the secret. I learned the key is to build your audience first by blogging and then have them sign up for your mailing list. After this, you have people willing to buy your books. I wish you luck in growing your career! I'll check out your poetry!
Thank you so much, Eric V.W.!! :-) I will get on in the advertising dept! :-) Can't wait to release my newer works in printed form - someday soon I hope! :-)
Congratulations on your new found freedoms, you beat the trodden path, but the path did not beat you.
May I suggest to keep that tad of fear as it is a valuable tool for being the cutting edge in all you do. 40 years free myself, yes and still keeping that tad of fear, that I have learned to embrace!
Thank you! Very smart idea to keep a tinge of the fear as a motivator. Cheers to you for being free for 40 years!
What's a protection center?
what does freedom feel like?
simple question...complex answer.
The powerful have more freedoms than the powerless...it's inherent.
So true! Freedom depends on many factors, so often we trade one burden for another.
Eric,
Fantastic to read you are leaving the corporate world behind you . Being boxed in a cubicle is no way to make a living for a man of your talents. Best to you and your family as you head out on your own .
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
I appreciate it, @sultnpapper! It feels good to be moving onto what's next. Only since I've made the decision did I realize it was my own fear holding me back the whole time. All the best to you and yours as well!
Congratulations Eric. You're an inspiration to many of us. I watched some of your earlier success here on Steemit and it gave me hope to follow a similar path.
I still work full time but I manage to make the time now to pursue my writing passions. Still here on Steemit I enjoy writing original poetry and posting original photography.
I am now working on my very own novel (first ever for me!). I'm so excited.
Thank you Eric and congrats! :)
P.S. Now let's hope you don't gain a ton of weight since you've lost your daily walks...
Thank you so much, man! Congratulations on starting your first novel! The first one was very difficult for me but finishing was the best feeling in the world. No matter how hard it gets, don't give up. NaNoWriMo offers a great template to help you finish. I'm going to make it a point to still try to get the same amount of exercise. We'll see how well that works! : )
Sounds familiar... I'm 46, I've always wanted to write too but I've sold my soul to the devil on so many occasions and turned my back on a path I feel I should have taken many times. I'm certainly not free (yet) but I'm awake and that's the first step! Super post and great uplifting story, I hope this works out for you, I'm sure it will!
Same boat @KevKong. I think its time for us to up the game. Ill be routing for ya
Thanks man, yep let's go for it :-)
Being awake is the most important part. I completely understand why you got cold feet, those last few steps are incredibly difficult...this is why it's taken me so long. Best of luck to you in your journey and thanks for your comment!
Wonderful! So happy for you :) 22 years is a long time and it sounds like a huge step!
Your dog looks a bit like "You're gonna be in my space all day every day from now on???" ;)
Best of luck! Sounds like you have inspiring things lined up already, that will keep you busy!
Thank you! Funny! Yes, I guess Amstel's expression could be read that way too. He's an old man now (10yrs old) and set in his ways. : )
Does he speak Dutch? :) How come he's got a Dutch name?
Lol. My wife names all of our dogs after beers. ; )
Ha hahaa! Well, why not. That's a good system :D