You're a travel writer? But that's not a real job!
I've lost count of how many times I've been told that my job as a travel writer is not a 'real' job. The most recent person to tell me was a British comedian during her stand-up show in Lemesos, Cyprus, where my husband and I are currently updating a guidebook. The audience laughed hysterically. Okay, they were already laughing hysterically - she was funny - so I couldn't tell if this 'joke' of hers, her joke on my profession, made them laugh any harder. I laughed too, of course, but was it really that funny, I wondered? I turned to look at my husband. He'd stopped laughing. Like him, I admit, I too am finding the 'joke' tiresome now. If what we do isn't a 'real' job, then why do we find ourselves working so hard? So far this year we've submitted a manuscript for a guidebook we spent a few months working on, updated an edition of a guidebook we wrote last year, and we're now in the process of updating another book. Add to that we've written online travel guides and blogs and gathered words and pictures for a dozen potential travel features. We work 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week when we're on the road, often longer during write-up. We can count on one hand the days 'off' we've had in the past two years. How is it that this is not considered to be a 'real' job? What is it that we're doing if we're not 'working'? Is this really some crazy person's idea of a holiday?
I've lost count of how many times I've been told that my job as a travel writer is not a 'real' job. The most recent person to tell me was a British comedian during her stand-up show in Lemesos, Cyprus, where my husband and I are currently updating a guidebook. The audience laughed hysterically. Okay, they were already laughing hysterically - she was funny - so I couldn't tell if this 'joke' of hers, her joke on my profession, made them laugh any harder. I laughed too, of course, but was it really that funny, I wondered? I turned to look at my husband. He'd stopped laughing. Like him, I admit, I too am finding the 'joke' tiresome now. If what we do isn't a 'real' job, then why do we find ourselves working so hard? So far this year we've submitted a manuscript for a guidebook we spent a few months working on, updated an edition of a guidebook we wrote last year, and we're now in the process of updating another book. Add to that we've written online travel guides and blogs and gathered words and pictures for a dozen potential travel features. We work 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week when we're on the road, often longer during write-up. We can count on one hand the days 'off' we've had in the past two years. How is it that this is not considered to be a 'real' job? What is it that we're doing if we're not 'working'? Is this really some crazy person's idea of a holiday?