When you have an inconvenient dream

Issue 05 | On Dreaming After 40

My name is Amanda, and I have a very inconvenient dream…

The timing is terrible and all indications point to the dream not working out…

Have you ever had a dream like that?

I have always always always wanted to be a professional writer - one who is able to share the words sent to me by my creator with an audience of people who are eager to read them, process them, and discuss.

But I’ve always wanted to do this as my primary work - my paid focus, my career, my vocation.

But for years, I’ve thought it to be impractical.

I received much guidance early on that trying to be a creative writer would keep me broke, that artists rarely break through, and that I would most likely starve in service of my dream.

And yet, I majored in English in college and after graduating, tried to figure out what would be next for me.

I had a couple of DC policy-adjacent jobs and knew that the typical Washington path wasn’t really for me. But a fortuitous essay written twenty years ago in the summer of 2004 lit a fire that has continued to burn ever since.

On a caffeine-fueled whim, I wrote about gentrification on U Street in Washington, DC and passed it along to Marie Arana, who at the time was editor of The Washington Post’s Book World section (and the sister to Dr. Vicky Arana, one of my English professors at Howard). Professor Arana had generously connected me to her sister for an informational interview prior to me writing the essay, and I naively wrote something and sent it to her.

She sent it along to the right people and it ended up published in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post, back when they had a vertical called “Home” in the Outlook section.

The response to that little essay from me - not yet a “real” writer, just an observer with a MacBook and a cup of coffee - showed me the power of my words, and hooked me on the possibility to create a microphone and create change.

That essay (which miraculously can still be found on The Washington Post’s website) lit my fire and helped me pursue a path to writing - I leveraged the clip to land a few reporting gigs at small local DC newspapers before getting a fellowship in long-form narrative journalism at Northwestern University. There, my 9 fellow cohort members and I spent the summer of 2006 chasing stories and trying to figure out who we’d be.

I came back to DC at the end of that summer and hit the ground running. Shout out to Taaq Kirksey who was working as a receptionist for the Washington City Paper at the time and walked me and my portfolio of clips down into the newsroom to introduce me to the editors.

With Taaq’s help, I flipped the summer fellowship into an internship followed by a staff writer position at the Washington City Paper. I was excited to be a full-time working print journalist!

That is, until one of the first waves of media downsizing happened and I was laid off…

As my friend reminded me today, I lost a newspaper job in 2007.

As I am with many things, I guess you could say I was ahead of the curve...? Read the rest of the article on Substack.

Books, Fellowships, and Substacks, Oh My! ??

This summer has been full of exciting writing news!

Publisher's Marketplace shared the Deal Report about my upcoming book just a few short weeks ago.

The Carter Center named me a 2024-2025 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Reporting Fellow. This is a huge honor and I'm excited to spend the next 12 months with this cohort of incredibly talented journalists who are all dedicated to using their professional skills to amplify mental health.

Support My New Independent Journalism Project on Substack by Becoming a Founding Member ??

While I’m also an award-winning personal branding coach and thought leadership strategist based in Washington, DC this new project is a manifestation of a dream to center my writing during this season of my professional journey.

If you've been following along my journey, you know that I write about burnout including how we find rest, our relationship to work, and redefining ambition in the post-pandemic era.

If you've enjoyed my articles and ideas on burnout I invite you to become a founding member of my new burnout-focused Substack REALIGNING with Amanda Miller Littlejohn.

I’m answering the call to help restore depleted professionals who are disconnected from their humanity due to chronic overworking and burnout.

You can help me do that by subscribing to the new Substack project and signing up as a paid founding member.

I appreciate your support!