THE SERENDIPITY OF SEPTEMBER – GUEST POST BY TAMI KAMIN MEYER
When I feel of September, I feel yellow college busses, soccer and cooler climate. I throw open my display screen porch door and home home windows to permit the recent, crisp air to waft via my home like a welcome good friend. I additionally adore the renewed vitality of Fall that appears to radiate in all places, though admittedly, it’s muted because of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, one thing occurred to me lately that conjured up that very same sense of pleasure, though this incidence pertains to my life as a contract author.
With time on my palms throughout the quarantine, I typically discovered myself perusing LinkedIn for one thing attention-grabbing to learn. Just a few months again, I occurred upon a put up a couple of non-revenue group, headquartered in Johnstown, Ohio, simply east of Columbus. The message’s creator was John Mennell, the founder of the Ohio Literacy Bank (OLB). The mission of his non-revenue is ending illiteracy by offering new and recycled magazines to at-threat readers in places simply accessible to them, similar to meals banks.
I instantly invited John to attach with me, and he obliged. We exchanged a number of messages about his group and the way I wished to volunteer sooner or later. We share a love of magazines, and it was enjoyable to debate how the trade has advanced over time. Thankfully for my skilled endeavors, print magazines should not a dying breed, as evidenced by an article in Forbes. New titles, similar to Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia, are changing defunct hardcopy publications similar to Marie Claire.
I really feel an additional dose of pleasure when one of my items seems in a print publication
I’m extremely grateful for know-how and the Internet, as a result of they expose freelance writers to a big, various and data-hungry viewers and on-line publications for whom to write down. However, I need to admit I really feel an additional dose of pleasure when one of my items seems in a print publication versus on-line solely. In my thoughts, there’s something poetic, even romantic, about opening {a magazine} and flipping via its colourful pages. People carry magazines from room to room and maintain them stacked on their bedside desk. Some learn magazines cowl-to-cowl and others, sadly, are left within the plastic through which they arrived till it’s time they’re recycled. No matter their journey, magazines are ubiquitous and I’m supremely grateful for that.
Back to John. After two aborted makes an attempt to satisfy face-to-face to additional focus on our skilled commonalities, we lately met in-particular person for espresso and a chat.
John regaled me with attention-grabbing tales how his small-however-mighty non-revenue is attacking illiteracy. To hear him focus on the varied magazines the OLB has obtained and distributed in addition to the quite a few unselfish acts of volunteerism carried out by supporters throughout the nation which have ensured that publications get within the palms of those that would profit is like listening to a effectively-tuned orchestra. As John’s zeal and pleasure about his group’s mission grew, so did my curiosity in listening to extra.
And that’s when my second of serendipity hit.
I felt a surge of pleasure as story concepts primarily based on the OLB’s successes flooded my mind. Intuitively, I started brainstorming about which publications is likely to be concerned about these concepts and why John’s story would possibly attraction to the demographics of explicit retailers. John and his mission are compelling and I used to be thrilled to be studying extra about him and his group’s efforts. All of that and so they’re proper right here in central Ohio, too.
I scribbled notes in my characteristically messy handwriting as he spoke, cautious to grasp the gravity of his non-revenue’s efforts and achievements. I peppered him with questions, all of which he answered with positivity and specificity. Meeting in particular person, over a cup of espresso, similar to I’d have pre-COVID-19, was refreshing. It was additionally vaguely acquainted as an exercise I loved immensely previous to COVID-19. Meeting face-to-face made the expertise that a lot richer, and I noticed how a lot I missed the social facet of being a contract author.
My coronary heart pumped with adrenaline whereas assembly with John as a result of after so lengthy of not interacting with folks face-to-face, I used to be gifted with that have once more. Speaking with him at arm’s size slightly than via a sq. field on my laptop computer monitor, ala Zoom, jogged my memory of one of my favourite features of being a freelancer that I actually missed: social interplay. That expertise reignited my zeal for writing, which actually had waned throughout the lengthy, sizzling summer season and the even longer and seemingly never-ending worldwide pandemic.
Thankfully, it’s again and so am I. Hope you get pleasure from a serendipitous September, too.
(c)Tami Kamin Meyer, 2021, all rights reserved
This essay first appeared within the September 2021 subject of Write Now Columbus. Subscribe right here.
