This spring marks five years of freelance writing. It was a slow start. I spent those first months reading and researching, while meeting my nephew’s school bus. Over the following two years, I cultivated business relationships and my time slowly began to fill with freelance work; I was ramping up for a big start to 2014 when something terribly inconvenient got in the way (cancer). But, life goes on and, thankfully, so does freelance writing work.
My work has appeared in a national magazine, local news publications, on small business websites, in newsletters, blog posts, press releases, business communications, brochures, and marketing materials for local and regional events. I’m a storyteller and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life.
Work of a lifetime
Fast forward to late this past winter. The associate editor at Rochester Business Journal, who also happens to be my best friend, asked me to take on an important cover story topic for the upcoming Special Report section on women’s health: contraception.
Sometime over the following three weeks of researching and interviewing subjects, I began to realize that this would be the most important piece of writing of my career, to-date. Maybe my whole career.
It was a perfect storm. My interview subjects could not have been better: An associate professor at the University of Rochester School Of Medicine and Dentistry who is also the Associate Residency Program Director for Obstetrics and Gynecology; the President and CEO for Planned Parenthood of Central & Western New York, and the organization’s medical director; and two sisters I have known for 25 years. All women.
Why it’s important to me
After those weeks of interviews and note-taking, I spent three days solid working on nothing else but writing this article. When I submitted it begging for feedback, my phone rang minutes later. Nailed it.
Working on this project was, my editor-friend agrees, a gift. The beautiful energy that fills me when I think about it transcends seeing my by-line in print. It is knowing that I helped to tell an important story.
Why it’s important to you
“Divining The Key” examines the current state of contraception—access, in particular—and explores how issues surrounding contraception affect women across the socioeconomic spectrum. This story could not have been better-timed, considering all the recent political machinations undermining women and our health concerns, including a just-signed-behind-closed-doors Presidential Executive Order allowing states to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood and other women’s health providers that may also offer abortion services.
But I digress.
Please click here to read the work I am most proud of (clicking will take you to the PDF stored on my website). Share it with all the women and men in your life.
Summit Thoughts
