“Ok, now bring your left leg to the front – circle your ankle,” I told three elementary-school age girls facing me, standing on one leg in a park. 

It was a beautiful mid-August day. The temperature was in the 70s and sunny, and I remember looking up into a tree overhead as the girls wobbled in front of me, noticing the leaves rustling in the wind. I took a moment to breathe deep, and appreciate this kind moment in my work life. 

Mixing it up 

This summer, I helped teach a 6-week summer course at a literacy center for kids with dyslexia. I worked with 20 students aged 6-12 in groups of three each morning. My lessons focused on “social and emotional learning.” Teaching yoga stemmed from trying to maintain some semblance of order in a fun way, and it sometimes succeeded. It was a high-energy and exhausting job, I gained even more respect for teachers. 

Over the past year, I’ve re-built my work life as a full-time Chicago-based freelance writer, journalist, and editor. My work is largely based at home, other than occasionally reporting from the field. I’ve enjoyed my work in content marketing, for the past two years writing for Toronto-based Qualicare’s home health care website (blogs like The Healing Power of Nature.) I’ve also completed a number of interesting projects like editing a children’s book, and a woman’s memoir. 

But I’d been eager to round out my time working in-person again, and this summer, a notice on the window of a literacy center in Rogers Park caught my eye. Working with kids again reminded me of where I started my post-graduate work life. 

Coming back to where I started

When I first graduated from college in 2010, I spent the year abroad – largely in Krakow, Poland and Nairobi, Kenya. Through a connection at my university, I was offered a 4-month internship in Nairobi, working in communications for a refugee advocacy organization. My Kenyan adventures included: Interviewing refugees in a desert camp in Northern Kenya, and spending a week riding a motorbike through the countryside to schools in South Sudan. It was a very challenging and very cool internship. 

Before and after Kenya, I created a work life in Poland teaching English, writing for the expat newspaper, and doing work for a friend’s website. By the end of my time in Krakow, I’d managed to pull together a good schedule of teaching and writing work, while sharing a flat with three Polish girls. It was possible for me to do this, because I had spent the previous three summers working at an summer English camp for high school kids outside of Krakow. Thankfully, the friends I had already made there were my lifeline to sanity, a social life, and figuring out housing and jobs. My parents were also unbelievably supportive, in so many ways. I was crazy privileged to get to experiment in this way, and have the opportunity to gain the kind of perspective and knowledge afforded by living abroad. 

I loved the type of work I did in Krakow. I loved the variety of teaching jobs and writing jobs, which took me all over the city. And, I loved the Krakow Post’s editorial meetings and “Beer of the Month” meetings. As for English teaching, I worked with everyone from business executives, to high school students. I still keep in touch with some of them today. One of my students from that time, in fact, is the author of the children’s book I edited this summer.

Communications & journalism

When I first graduated from college, I was bursting with curiosity about the world. After a few years of traveling and living abroad, and working a variety of jobs, including at a public health clinic in Lincoln, Nebraska, I decided to move to Chicago, get a master’s degree, and see where my career and my life would take me. 

My career niche became communications, and I learned all I could about the field. I learned how much I love organizing press conferences, writing talking points, and learning about Chicago politics. And working around journalists made me realize a few years ago that it was time to get serious about a career as a professional writer. 

So I started small, and while I had a full-time job working for a non-profit, I wrote for more established writers’ websites and small publications. Then, I got my break a few years ago after meeting up with the editor of National Catholic Reporter, who said they needed freelance reporters. I subsequently produced many features and news articles for National Catholic Reporter, and eventually was asked to write a major feature for Sojourners Magazine. I absolutely loved the reporting, and I worked extremely hard on every piece. 

But last fall, shortly after I got married, I realized that I needed to step away from reporting on the Catholic world. Having worked so hard to get to where I was, this was not an easy decision for me. However, writing articles about a church that no longer holds any water for me became more and more physically difficult. The body doesn’t lie. 

Finally, all of the articles about women’s subjugation, abuse, and silencing became too much. They hit too close to home. Writing articles about the church began giving me debilitating migraines. Still, I worked through them as best I could, until I just couldn’t ignore my body any longer. Finally, I hung up my hat and let myself rest.

Last fall, it was time for a reset. 

Though career re-births are never a straight line, I am very grateful to have always had robust and consistent monthly writing work, and an endlessly interesting and expanding professional network to call upon for advice. Writers, especially women writers, I have found, are just so good to each other. 

As one Sun-Times journalist put it earlier this summer, at a brunch I attended with the Association of Women Journalists in Chicago – “you do anything to write.” Writers and journalists know that it is a long slog to come up in this field. This work is not for the faint of heart. And those who have made it, I have found, are often more than happy to lend a hand. I’m glad to be in their professional networks now, and I look forward to reporting once again.

Onward

Nearly a year after I reset my work life, I found myself under the trees, with a group of smart little girls who had learned yoga poses, and who could tell me why understanding our emotions is important.

And, though the literacy center program was not without frustration, (how many times in an hour can I tell a 12-year old boy “one voice at a time!”) It was a well-situated moment in time for me to see where my life has led. It feels like the most natural thing in the world to be both writing professionally and teaching once again.

I appreciate the circular nature of our universe.

This fall, I am continuing my work at the literacy center, and writing about healthcare. I am also interested in potentially taking on new work in these areas: content marketing (articles, blogs, and other web content) features reporting work for news publications, and personal projects (book editing, memoirs, etc.) 

Looking for a writer? Check out my homepage & feel free to send me an inquiry: contact@sophievodvarka.com