Life Beat Me

So, I’m fat or overweight, if that makes you feel better. I have been out of college for a year and half, and I can now understand how people get so fat. Between commuting, stress, laundry, bills, and chores, there’s not much time to take care of you. I’m struggling and I don’t even have my own place or kids to take care of yet. I don’t know how people do this!!

Not only are there some pudgy people around my office and on the train to work, I’ve noticed that obesity seems to be a trend in the technical writing field. I don’t know if it’s because many technical writers work out of their house and wear sweat pants every day or we eat because our jobs are depressing. But, I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever met a technical writer at the gym or met one that talked about fitness or a hobby that requires one to be fit. For example, I rode with a bike club last year and not one person knew what a technical writer was until I showed up.

Anyway, whatever the reasons are for technical writers being chubby, or anyone, it doesn’t matter because I don’t want to be like them. I’m only 23 years old and I can’t live the rest of my life hating my body. I can’t avoid social situations or wearing my favorite outfits because I’m too self-conscious about my appearance. I want to be able to go shopping and wear whatever I want. I want to be able to wear a bikini on vacation and I want to make guys drool so I can tell them to F*** off.

I’m not sure what my next step is going to be, but it’s looking like I might be re-joining weight watchers. Weight watchers works. The problem I’ve had in the past, is that I turn it into a game of “how much weight can I loose” instead of focusing on the life-style change and making it stick.

So, we’ll see. There are some meetings on the weekends, maybe I’ll check them out this weekend. I’ll keep you posted.

Peace.

I am all for taking one for the team and helping out in anyway I can, but I would like to know how I became the office printing bitch. Apparently, my coworkers would rather ask me to print than figuring out how to connect their computer to the colored printer. I have more important things to do than print…well maybe I don’t, but still!! Come on!!!

Well, now that I’ve told you that I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up, I should probably tell you about my current job. I am a (holds breath and winces…) technical writer. Take a moment to let that sink in…

So, technical writing. Well, traditionally technical writers are the people who document processes and write manuals, such as user guides and owner manuals. Technical writers are present in every industry, from automotive and health to engineering and software. There are many variations of technical writers in the field, but in a nutshell they are the people who document everything.

In my case, I am a technical writer at a software company. I am responsible for writing user manuals and providing text for our online help system, in addition to several other projects that involve writing/editing. In a way, I’m the catch-all person who takes care of anything that is related to documentation in all shapes and forms.

On the plus side, my job is not traditional for a technical writer. I am not locked away in an office editing manuals that someone else wrote or using Adobe FrameMaker to make PDFs (if you don’t know what FrameMaker is, google it). I have had the opportunity to work on other projects and be involved in the software development process.

On the downside, my job is not what I thought I would be doing after graduation. When I graduated from college, this job kind of fell into my lap because I was introduced to this company and they liked me. They saw my resume and saw I had a degree in English that had something to do with Technical Writing. Granted, many people with my major go on to work in the technical writing/communication field, but I don’t think this is where I was meant to end up. I appreciate it what technical writers do and I appreciate technology/software for what it has to offer, but I don’t think I can do this the rest of my life.

In first grade it’s a simple answer: “fire-fighter,” “teacher,” “race car driver,” “doctor,” or “police officer,” and you draw a picture of it.

But as a young adult, the question has morphed into more of a “what do you want to do with your career?”

I’m starting this blog as a way to work through my journey of figuring out what I want to do. Before now, I’ve never had the opportunity to stop and think about what makes me happy and what I want to get out of a career.

It feels like it’s too late to be doing this since I’m already graduated from college, but I can’t let life beat me. I’ve decided that I don’t want life to win; I don’t want to settle for the current job I have. I don’t want to be grateful that I have a job, I want to be grateful that I have I job that I like, maybe even love.

I invite you to join me in my journey. I can’t predict the outcome, but I can promise it won’t be boring.