Freelancing has taught me that life will kick you left, right and center- that is, if you allow it to. It is the hardest and at the same time the easiest job that you can take on. The idea of being your own boss has its perks but there are many aspects to freelancing. It is simple yet multi-dimensional and requires commitment and lots of creativity. The best part about it is that it gives you room to grow and experience new things and if you do it well enough, you might actually start living.
That said, freelancing has taught me how to live. It might sound strange but before I started freelancing, I was not actually living! In fact, I was alive but barely breathing. Having had the opportunity to find out what it means to wake up at a normal hour or eat dinner before sundown has changed my life tremendously. I now know what it feels like to spend hours at the park, spend quality time with my husband and that Shanghai is actually pronounced 'shunghai' all because I learned to live. Freelancing has taught me how to pace myself and to literally stop and smell the roses and go one step further and name them.
I used to think that living meant waking up every day, rushing to work and beating traffic to get back home to quickly eat a poorly thrown together meal or my favorite fast food then falling asleep to the TV. Do you know what I would do the next day? The same thing, with the exception of the long-awaited two weeks vacation that only went by too fast.
Now I know the importance of eating a square meal each day, I have even noticed that I have a new beauty spot and that I actually like cooking. Not to mention the fact that I have discovered a whole new world and my restless feet suddenly feel like my 16-year-old self that wanted to travel the world.
Life is only meaningful and valuable if it is being lived. Freelancing has shown me that there is more to life than being too tired half of the time to lift a finger, being worn out by impending deadlines and being confined to the judgment and expectations of bosses and everyone else. Instead, it has put things into perspective.
I can now focus on the important things and drown out the noise. My inner zest for life has tripled and I am not living to just pay bills then curl up and die. Each day is an adventure, whether in my writing or in where I decide to go and who I meet. The freedom is exhilarating and the taste of life has been quite humbling.