Blogger, Teacher, Freelancer: How One Health Journalist Juggles It All

Waitressing proved good training for my freelance journalism career. I had to keep track of a lot of tables. Each customer wanted something different. Some sent their meals back with a snarky comments. I would get great tips on day and stiffed the next. Either way, I never seemed to make enough.

So, today I find the local science web site I was just hired to run at Table No.1. Also seated in my station: my health blog, an assignment for a radio piece and the evaluations from one of the two classes I taught in the spring. I'll take it all (except the evaluations, which were a bit brutal this term.) Some of this work comes after a dry spell driven by the tanking economy and the near collapse of the newspaper and magazine industries.

After 20 years of newspapering and 10 years of freelance writing, I am now one of many journalists trying to build a new career path in a shifting, unfamiliar media landscape. (Do I really need to write articles for people to read on their phones?)

I have an advantage - a steady adjunct teaching gig and an employed partner with health benefits. Still, it takes new skills, strong coffee, trial and error, networking, monthly acupuncture sessions, and a deep pool of story ideas to keep is going. The hours are long, but flexible. The effort can be exhausting - like I'm constantly on a job hunt. But, it feels like it is starting to gel.

I try to use the downtime in between classes to concentrate on freelancing and developing my new radio skills. But, summer passes quickly and I now need to use some of it to tend to the issues raised in my recent class evaluations. Last semester was not my best performance in the classroom. I don't think this is a ball I dropped while juggling all this work. I was just burned out on it. Teaching college students can be emotionally draining and labor intensive - the work can quickly eat up my days. My classes are early in the morning but marking up papers takes hours. I hope better time management, a thicker skin, some new material and a sense of humor will go a long way in dealing with it.

So, running Tink Inc. has its joys but can also feel like a struggle. It helps to have a pal or two in the same situation to bitch about editors, late papers, and the usual water cooler stuff you don't vent when working on your own. Still, just when I'm ready to quit and apply for a waitressing job, I get a good assignment or an engaged student will come along to keep me going. 

Would I trade it in for a good full-time job? Probably, but not at the moment. Someone in my family needs to have flexible - or at least predictable - hours. But, that's not the only reason. Working on my own has allowed me to work on new skills that will advance my career. Right now seems like a good time to keep doing that.

Tinker Ready is a health and science journalist who writes for Boston Health News and Nature Network Boston but still has a hard time calling herself a blogger.