One year later, I'm making a big life decision
I'm betting on me.
Let’s start with the big life update, and cut straight to the point: I was laid off from my job last month. Man, does it feel weird to share that publicly.
For the first time in decades, I find myself without full-time employment. It’s been anxiety-inducing and exciting, simultaneously. There are times when I don’t know what to do with myself, but they don’t last. I struggle to not be busy. For better or worse, I’m an inveterate hustler. I can’t sit still for too long. Is it work ethic? Is it ADHD? Dear reader, I am fairly sure it’s both.
I’ve spent the past six weeks thinking deeply about what, exactly, it is I want out of my life, and I think I’ve landed on something of an answer: I’m going to choose myself, and my writing, my editing and all the other talents I’ve spent my life honing. I’m going independent, or freelance, or self-employed, or whatever you want to call it. To paraphrase LeBron James, I’m taking my talents to anyone that wants them, and I’m joining… me.
It’s a little scary, sure, and it opens up much potential for uncertainty. It’s also the most excited I’ve felt about anything in a long time. When I check in with my mind, my heart and my gut, it feels deeply correct.
I’ve had a busy freelance side hustle for some time, writing and editing for various publications and individuals, and doing a bit of fundraising, event planning and grant writing here, a bit of social media management there. I’m turbocharging that now, as a writer, editor and consultant for both businesses and nonprofits. Got an idea you want to work with me on? Hit me up. I would love to edit your book, or be your writing coach. I’d love to work on creative branding, fundraising and social media for your business or small nonprofit. I’m open to any and all ideas.
Substack factors heavily into this next chapter of my life. I launched The Other Maine exactly one year ago today, because I wanted to recommit myself to my writing, and I wanted to tell real Maine stories in order to fill the void left by the gutting of features and arts writing in newsrooms statewide - and because I love to do it. It’s been an absolute joy, and I feel like I’m just getting started. But I can’t do it without your help.
Those of you that have supported me with a paid subscription to The Other Maine: I am profoundly grateful to you. You have made this work possible. I cannot stress that enough. If you want to do a little extra, you can share this or any post as a note on Substack, or on your social media.
For those who haven’t paid yet, however, now is the time to pony up! Monthly subscriptions are just $7 per month, and are the easiest way to enjoy my work and the work of other Maine writers. I want to be featuring more Maine writers and Maine voices. I want to be able to travel to the far-flung corners of this state. I want to work with photographers and visual artists to illustrate these stories. I want to pay people! And I want to be able to still offer the majority of new posts here for free, because it’s important to me that it’s accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they pay for it or not.
The better - and technically less expensive! - way to support my work is through a yearly subscription, which is $75 per year. You save about 10 percent off a monthly subscription, and those reliable larger chunks of funds help me do things like, say, pay the internet bill or put gas in my car. That’s not an exaggeration. When people talk about the creative economy, this is the kind of thing they really mean: being able to pay your bills while making your beautiful art or doing your beautiful writing or making your beautiful food or building your beautiful things.
HOWEVER! As a little one-year anniversary special, for the next ten days, yearly subscriptions are 20 PERCENT OFF! That’s right: you can get a full year of The Other Maine for $60 instead of $75, along with the satisfaction of knowing that not only do you support creators here in Maine, but you also made a savvy financial decision. You must click this magic link in order to redeem this offer, which only runs through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, July 31.
The best way to support this work is, of course, through a founding member subscription, which is $150 per year. My friend Nicole tells me I need to stop being a weenie and know my worth and say that this is the kind of support I really need and deserve, and that women need to not be afraid to ask for what they want. She’s right, of course. We all go to her for life advice. She has a t-shirt that says “I may be wrong, but I doubt it.” It’s accurate.
Besides following my passions, reaching for the brass ring, going for the goal and all those cliched sayings, I also have to admit: the idea of being my own boss is incredibly appealing. I’ve never not worked for somebody else. Now, the only person I can get mad at is me!
My first job was at age 14, when I sold vegetables from a farmstand on Route 1 in Searsport. I was paid $4.25 an hour to weigh tomatoes and smile at tourists. Next, I worked for Mr. Paperback in Belfast. I sold books, magazines, CDs, greeting cards and candy, and smiled at lots more tourists. I also worked for a catering company one summer, slopping baked beans and potato salad onto paper plates at events along the coast. Teenage jobs; a rite of passage.
In college, I took a very random job for an English major: a field and lab assistant in the plant, soil and environmental science department at the University of Maine. I spent one summer hiking a mountain in Washington County to collect samples from a forest soils test site. I learned how to work in literal clouds of black flies and not completely lose my mind. I also worked for Bull Moose Music in Bangor one year, where I got to live out the real-life cliche of being a jaded record store clerk. And I spent several years as music director and program director at WMEB 91.9 FM, the UMaine college radio station. I got to listen to music and pick the best things to play and talk about it on the radio and receive money for it! Incredible!
That was my first job in media, a career path I knew I wanted to pursue. More importantly, I knew from a very young age I was a writer. I got a typewriter for my 9th birthday - the computer came a few years later - so I could write stories and poems that, were I to read them today, would surely give me a mortification-induced aneurysm. I applied for an internship with the Bangor Daily News in the summer of 2004, and then it was off to the races.
I was with the BDN for just over 20 years, where I learned almost everything I know about storytelling, about listening to people, about cooperation and collaboration, and about our strange, spectacular state. It was like graduate school, and it was like family, in some ways, for a very long time. Almost every major life event of my 20s and 30s happened while I was there.
It was incredibly hard to leave the BDN, but at the beginning of 2025 I went to work in nonprofits, to try something new and to put some of my skills to work trying in some way to make Maine a better, more just and accessible place. I still want to do that. I’m still going to do that.
That job ended, very suddenly, on June 3, and here I am; at a crossroads, five days shy of my 44th birthday, making a huge life decision. It was always the goal to do this. Things like this rarely happen exactly when you want them to, but when they do happen, you’d better go for it.
I’m asking for it, world. I’m going all in, as they say. I’m going to try to do the thing I was born for, for real this time. I’m betting on myself. I hope, maybe, you’ll want to bet on me too. I know I’m a good bet. I know I’m worth it.
I believe in ewe, Emily! Let's coffeetawk one day soon.
Excellent! Good luck and let's chat soon.