Like many of you, I have given a lot of thought to the question: Should I quit my job and do Steemit full-time?

Some Steemians have actually DONE IT! That makes me so happy. I love seeing people take risks in order to lead more fulfilling lives. I love it when people decide they've had enough of their shitty jobs and decide to do something FREAKING AWESOME instead. And I love Steemit. So there's really nothing not to love.

So... should I do it, too?

It's very tempting, especially for someone in my situation. I've been trying to crack the "how to become a working writer" egg for nearly five years now. And really throwing myself into it for the last two years.

I've taken some amazing writing workshops. I've written short stories and submitted them each to 20 different markets and got 20 nearly-identical rejections. I've written freelance articles on topics assigned to me by the buyer. I have some business clients who I write blog posts for, but that's not really the type of writing I want to do. Not like Steemit.

Steemit gives me the opportunity, each day, to write about things that are important and interesting to ME. Things that aren't crafted specifically to sell products or services. Things that express my own oddness and encourage other odd people to engage with me. Steemit enables me to be paid (and paid pretty well!) for my work. And it allows me to interface with all of these other amazing rogues, radicals, and revolutionaries. Plus, since I started posting on Steemit, my motivation to write has increased exponentially. And that's saying a lot, because I was already pretty motivated before I joined Steemit.

In short, full-time Steemit writing would be the PERFECT occupation for me. But I'm not ready to make that leap. Not yet.

For one thing, I just got to the point in my life where I'm doing the prudent thing. I feel like a lot of the folks who are quitting their shitty jobs in favor of Steemit have been working the same types of shitty jobs for decades, never taking risks, never truly acknowledging their dreams and aspirations or making a solid effort to see them realized. These are people who have been doing "the right thing", following society's road map to success, promising themselves that some day it would all pay off.

I'm sort of the opposite. I did all "the wrong things". I crumpled up the road map and threw it in the garbage can early on and I've been trying to follow my dreams since I was a teenager. This "quit the lame thing to do the awesome thing" tactic? Been there, done that. I quit high school to travel. I did travel for a while, but then realized that traveling costs money (surprise!) and I didn't have any. So I got a job. I quit that job to move to a more interesting city, and I quit almost every job I had after that to do something more interesting.

What I didn't do, and have never done, is figure out a good, workable plan for how to do what I really, truly, in my heart of hearts, want to do more than anything: I want to write, and I want to travel, and that's it.

Several times, when I had some extra money I would think, "oh sweet, now I can travel!" But that extra money would only buy me one short trip. It wasn't enough! I didn't want to go on one fleeting vacation. I wanted to travel incessantly. So I did something crazy, like sell everything I own and buy a travel trailer. (Done that twice.) But travel trailers require MONEY. You have to pay for gas, and repairs, and campground fees, and whatnot. And I had nothing saved up, and no reliable way to make money on the road/air/sea.

So a few years ago I determined that the only way to get myself to the goal of writing and traveling permanently was:

1. Become a working writer.

2. Save up enough money to last me (and my family, cause they're pretty special to me) the first year of traveling. I'm not going to go off half cocked again. When I start my travels--my REAL travels--I want the security of knowing that we can sustain ourselves for at least the foreseeable future.

3. Sell all my shit (again) and GO.

And I've been working toward those goals ever since. First I started a virtual assistance business (I'd been a stay-at-home, homeschool mom for seven years, and one income in the family wasn't giving us enough leeway to save anything.) I did my business for three years, but I discovered that it would take me making compromises I didn't want to make in order to get a steady, reliable, monthly income. Like hiring people and being their boss. (Ew.) So I kept a few clients, said goodbye to some others, and went out looking for a "real job". And I found one. As an e-commerce coordinator at a gun store. (Confession: I love guns.)

A month ago, I was working two jobs (the gun store and freelancing) and homeschooling my daughter two days a week (her dad does two days, as well), and I thought there was no possible way I could handle anything else on my plate, but at least I was saving money! And then Steemit came into my life, and I added a heaping two-hour-a-day helping of writing to that plate, and now I'm so confident and happy and motivated and productive and busy--I've never been this busy in my life. And exhausted! But it's a contented kind of exhaustion, and I'm saving even more money than I was before.

The other day I was standing in the gun store, polishing a sweet little derringer pistol, when it hit me: I AM A WORKING WRITER.

It was such an arresting thought that I almost dropped the derringer (don't worry, we don't keep the guns loaded at the gun store.) I mean, I'M DOING IT! Goal one has been accomplished. Things are coming together. My plan is working.

Here's the thing: the way my life is right now is GOOD for me. Working my ass off 13 hours a day is GOOD for me. Writing every day at a feverish pace because I promised myself I would post every day on Steemit and goddamn it, I'm going to keep that promise, is GOOD for me.

When it all gets to be too much (it will, eventually), and assuming that Steemit continues to grow and be awesome (I think it will) and that I continue to be successful as a Steemit author (I foresee nothing but increased success), then I will quit my job to Steem full time. Hopefully, by that time, I will have saved enough $ and BTC and STEEM to make it work.

Until then, I'm enjoying the journey.

I love you, Steemit!

Hi! My name is Leslie Starr O'Hara, but I go by Starr. I live in the mountains of North Carolina and I write fiction, satire, humor, and the odd anarchist think piece here on Steemit. Follow me if you're interested in stuff about sci-fi, writing, homeschooling, productivity, or just stuff that will make you laugh your britches off.

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If you want to help me achieve that second goal, tip me $1.00!