This really hits home to me! I recently did not get the job I have been aspiring to get in my own professional rom-com, and now I feel very “but what even is my dream really?”
Still, I’m a sucker for these movies (romcoms too) because I love the feeling that anything is possible and that I should believe in my dreams. It’s just how I prefer to live my life!
But then what is the dream? To your point, maybe it’s not a specific job after all, but actually just how I want to spend my time/life. And that’s WRITING!!!! I think I need a new writing dream to pine after, working for myself.... 😍
Thank you so much for being exactly what I needed to read this morning!
I loved this letter Lizzy, thanks for writing it. For me, the only shows that have come close to accurately portraying the trials of building a career as a young writer are Girls (after a miserable content writing job and disillusioning grad school experience, Hannah gives up on writing altogether and becomes a teacher) and The Bold Type (Katie's trajectory is very career porn-y, but the show's depiction of her freelancing period feels more truthful).
Thank you for your refeshingly honest take on the world of Rom-coms. All through reading it I was thinking 'The Devil Wears Prada'. We have all worked for the type of boss, I'm sure, where they are absolute hellhounds, but we think by taking the shit, we'll make it to the top. It's a hell of a learning curve to realise that you get rewarded for doing a good job, by getting more work, and that's it, no extra pay. (I knew this a long time before I realised I could do something about it!). There is a reason I work for myself, and it isn't because I was delusional in thinking I could earn millions, I just decided that money isn't everything and I could be far happier in other aspects of my life if my work life wasn't so crappy. As you know, I now have the best of both worlds, in working for a fantastic company part time, and still working for myself the rest of the time, and that works. I constantly have a battle with myself as to which is better, but that's mainly peri-menopausal, imposter syndrome exhaustion. It's taken me until the age of 42 to realise you should be happy with what you have, as you got yourself there and you're fucking amazing. There's nothing wrong with striving for more, just don't punish yourself if you don't get there
The government claim there is a 500,000 increase in people in work since before the pandemic. The figure they are quoting does not take In to account the loss of 700,000 self employed jobs during the same period. A fuller explanation of this was given on Radio Four’s More or Less on 11/2/22. Neither of these figures specify how many of these were women.
This really hits home to me! I recently did not get the job I have been aspiring to get in my own professional rom-com, and now I feel very “but what even is my dream really?”
Still, I’m a sucker for these movies (romcoms too) because I love the feeling that anything is possible and that I should believe in my dreams. It’s just how I prefer to live my life!
But then what is the dream? To your point, maybe it’s not a specific job after all, but actually just how I want to spend my time/life. And that’s WRITING!!!! I think I need a new writing dream to pine after, working for myself.... 😍
Thank you so much for being exactly what I needed to read this morning!
I loved this letter Lizzy, thanks for writing it. For me, the only shows that have come close to accurately portraying the trials of building a career as a young writer are Girls (after a miserable content writing job and disillusioning grad school experience, Hannah gives up on writing altogether and becomes a teacher) and The Bold Type (Katie's trajectory is very career porn-y, but the show's depiction of her freelancing period feels more truthful).
Thank you for your refeshingly honest take on the world of Rom-coms. All through reading it I was thinking 'The Devil Wears Prada'. We have all worked for the type of boss, I'm sure, where they are absolute hellhounds, but we think by taking the shit, we'll make it to the top. It's a hell of a learning curve to realise that you get rewarded for doing a good job, by getting more work, and that's it, no extra pay. (I knew this a long time before I realised I could do something about it!). There is a reason I work for myself, and it isn't because I was delusional in thinking I could earn millions, I just decided that money isn't everything and I could be far happier in other aspects of my life if my work life wasn't so crappy. As you know, I now have the best of both worlds, in working for a fantastic company part time, and still working for myself the rest of the time, and that works. I constantly have a battle with myself as to which is better, but that's mainly peri-menopausal, imposter syndrome exhaustion. It's taken me until the age of 42 to realise you should be happy with what you have, as you got yourself there and you're fucking amazing. There's nothing wrong with striving for more, just don't punish yourself if you don't get there
The government claim there is a 500,000 increase in people in work since before the pandemic. The figure they are quoting does not take In to account the loss of 700,000 self employed jobs during the same period. A fuller explanation of this was given on Radio Four’s More or Less on 11/2/22. Neither of these figures specify how many of these were women.