I quit my job yesterday. This decision has hung over my head for the past month (since AJ found a new job with Bayfield County). I finally had to face the fact that I wasn't going to go back because the job (as it was) didn't suit me. It's a choice and privilege I am not taking lightly.

After I came home from discussing my decision with the newspaper's publisher, I immediately applied for a copy editor position with a business trends reporting company. My qualifications (and desire to be an editor again) seem to fit their needs perfectly, so I'm crossing my fingers. I fussed over the cover letter for most of the day, and still sent it off without being entirely happy with it.

Which leads me to one of the reasons why I quit my job at the newspaper: my writing has become staid and banal. There, I said it. Now, I can get on with being a lively and entertaining writer again.

Since returning to the newspaper, my writing has suffered terribly (as has my creativity in general). This stiffling restraint had to stop, so I quit. (Note: I love all my co-workers, and did not quit because of them or demands they made on me. My beef lies with the customers who knew what they wanted but couldn't articulate it coupled with out of control deadlines and worthless equipment. All of these things stewed together to create a stress I didn't want to bring home with me anymore.)

In the spirit of my new found freedom from the shackles of the indecisive and inefficient, I have decided to change. I think the indecision I faced each day rubbed off on me, clouding my head with the inablity to think, let alone act.

Since quitting (it was only yesterday!) I have felt a clarity of purpose I seemed to have lost when I went to work in the hustle-and-bustle world of newspapers five years ago. I know what I need to do.

I need to create everyday (Not just writing, but painting, collage, drawing and sewing). I also need to do everything I can to bring my son up to be a loving and kind person. Both of these will require passion and dedication, two words that have stuck in my mind recently as the missing ingredients in my life.

I am now going to passionately take on not just writing and motherhood, but life itself, with a dedication to doing what I believe to be right and best for everyone. I feel a ferocity to do this that I have never felt before, propelled, no doubt, by my new role as mom.

Look out world, here I come!