Today is the publication day for a new book, Your 10 Keys to Happiness. It's a collection of 101 favorite stories chosen by the Chicken Soup for the Soul editors. I'm honored--and honestly, a little surprised--to be part of this collection.
In celebration I thought I'd share the backstory behind this piece and what's happened in my work life since then.
The Lunch Hour
My story involves a demanding job, the kind where people routinely worked through lunch, on weekends, coming in early and leaving late. After working there for a few years, I decided to take the radical path of reclaiming my lunch hour. Lunch! That's the entire plot of my story! (If you've ever thought that you shouldn't write because "nothing exciting ever happens to me", let this be a lesson to you!)
I submitted my story for possible publication in a book tentatively titled Chicken Soup for Troubled Times. In my journal on February 28, 2009, I wrote: "Today I'm going to write something for the tough times anthology...I want to write about lunch hours at work, though that seems too light a topic. Plus, I'm not sure how much of a 'story' I can make it. But really, a lot of people won't have those overly dramatic stories--the tornadoes and floods--in their lifetimes, but almost everyone has some kind of malaise at their current job."
"The Lunch Hour" was accepted for a book titled Count Your Blessings, which was published late 2009. Did you notice that's not the title I submitted it to? It turned out that the publisher received a few stories that were like mine that didn't quite fit what they were looking for with the earlier title, but that they still liked. I wrote in my journal on March 19, 2009: "I received an email about my lunchtime piece that I submitted for Tough Times, Tough People. They've decided to do a spin-off book Count Your Blessings and my piece is a finalist for that. The book won't come out until December, so I won't find out until closer if it makes it. That makes me glad that I submitted--I was thinking that it was too light for the original book."
What Happened Next
I quit my full time job in 2010 (yes, in the middle of the recession!) and started freelancing as an editor and writer, including assignments with my former employer. (It turned out that it was more pleasant to work for them as a contractor than an employee. I'm so grateful to my wonderfully kind and thoughtful former co-workers who helped me transition to that new role.)
The same year I also started my Etsy shop where I've since sold more than 17,000 handmade items. My customers are the best! I've been honored to create so many special items to help them celebrate important milestones, happy and sad. I also sell my jewelry and other items wholesale to brick-and-mortar shops. I published my jewelry how-to book Unexpected Findings in 2014.
In 2015, I had lunch in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado with the Chicken Soup publisher and other local contributors. It was one of the nicest writing events I've ever attended.
In 2018, "The Lunch Hour" was featured on the Chicken Soup podcast.
In 2019, my former company filed for bankruptcy and parts of it were sold off.
So far this year I've completed an intense class learning all about Adobe Illustrator and creating online art. I'm excited to see where my new skills take me!
This isn't to say it's been all rainbows and sunshine over the years. Sometimes I do need to complete some annoying work task (this week it's replacing my accounting software), but all in all, it turns out that I absolutely love being my own boss! Looking back, I didn't just take back my lunch hour; I took back my joy.
P.S. Lunch is still my favorite meal of the day.