I think I’ve mentioned previously that I sold my laptop a few weeks ago. I now have to weasel my way into the office desktop every time I needed to blog or network via Facebook. Notice that the desktop has an ominous “office” prefix attached to it and every single instance I use it, I am plagued with so much guilt, it is ridiculous! When I attempt at social networking, even for a few minutes (even fewer than the average internet user does) I can practically hear that morally-obsessed side of myself chowing down on my conscience, it puts the angels to shame. What I do not understand is how my husband can spend hours, an entire day even, playing every game known to your typical gamer with no reservations whatsoever: he gives no time limit to his usage and he only stops when I ask him to.  Thus, reader, you now understand why I think the “office” desktop is, without my knowledge,  placed in my husband’s name—signed, sealed, notarized.

So I decided to let go of the whole conjugal concept and just work on having my own laptop again by working again. I decided to give odesk a visit and found the career path that I’ve always looked on with teary eyes, drool impulse almost out of control, cue the melodramatic music and handover the Kleenex (for the tears and the drool).

I have been eyeing a career in writing for years. This came next to singing. But since my singing was almost always met with cracking high notes and obligatory clapping, I knew I had to take my singing to my own recording booth—at least until I’ve learned to pick the right songs and have better control over my voice. Lord knows that takes at least two years of 24/7 practice. By the time I’ve gotten good enough to build a career on this craft, doors will have shut faster than it will have taken me to pitch in a musical note or two.  Besides, judging from the insane amount of money I owe my husband and my rents, I don’t think a non-earning hobby would take me anywhere abundant, not even anywhere comfortable.  Again, I am not a bad singer and one of these days I’ll show you but for now we have to go back to writing because this is the post that would take me to jobs I find worth having.

When I was pondering on my higher education, I asked my aunts if there were courses that would involve writing—lots of it. They all told me journalism; I remember lighting up and then being let down in a snap when they added that I didn’t have to study writing.  ”If you have it, you have it”, they said.  The last thing I needed was to feel more inferior in talent than I already did at that time: I was related to and was best friends with some of the wittiest writers and obsessive proof readers I know.  These advisors knew what they were talking about…or so I thought. It didn’t help too that my mother also thought writers are weird; most of them always end up depressed and suicidal. At 16, with no social status high enough to bullpoo my way out of anything and no boyfriend to build my ego, weird and talent-deprived wasn’t exactly the description I was aiming for in college. Thus I took it upon myself to listen to the adults who have apparently succeeded in life because they’ve made a life out of earning enough to pay the bills and maintain the lifestyle they wanted, sans passion, zest and spirit.

Ten years later, after countless hours spent on soul-numbing recordkeeping and admin assisting, I found myself yearning to get back in the game of sharing bits and pieces of myself, and sharing nuggets of my thoughts through writing.  Excited, I hauled that desire and passion to the odesk pages and took English assessment tests. I didn’t fail, I didn’t do great either. But as I always say, there is nothing the internet can’t teach you and polishing my verb tenses agreement and punctuations are but a week of learning away.

On top of this, I also have this nagging fear of giving away too much of myself in my articles. Marcia Cross once said, “Keep crazy in a bottle.” I am not a nut in the the very essence of “nut’s” figurative sense (i.e. i’m not insane). But my articles are always wrought with eccentricity both in content and in construction.

These, however, will not stop me, Internet employers, from giving you a piece of both fun and serious, focused and diverse writing. In all seriousness, I can do and have in fact done content writing. I think I’m good at it too but of course talent is in the senses of the employer so the self-assessment can understandably be nullified.

In closing, this is a mandatory post: my take on the sample article ever so sought after in every writing job at odesk (and not to be mistaken as a generic cover letter). So when I do find a job description that tickles my fancy, I can easily refer buyers/clients to this article…fingers crossed.