I can't remember a time when I didn't love to proofread. I was one of those annoyingly geeky kids at school; the sort that, by about the age of eight, corrects the teacher's punctuation mistakes.
Learning to spell, reading and creative writing were my favourite things to do at school. Nothing made me happier than to get 100 per cent on a spelling test. I grew up in a family of readers, and I read wherever and whenever I could. When my mum sent me outside I would often take a book and climb the big pepper tree in our back garden, sit in the branches and read. I even read {and still do} at the loo!
It was probably inevitable that, like my mum and sister before me, I'd do a BA in English at university, and maybe that would have propelled me into book publishing. Certainly, now, I wish that's what had happened. But my Year 10 English teacher changed all that. He disliked me and actively discouraged my love of English.
I went from being an A student in Year 9, to getting Cs and Ds in Year 10 - and beyond. Because he was the head of department, he had final say in the students' marks, and he would not allow my teachers to give me good marks. I didn't know this until the end of Year 12, when my very favourite teacher, Mr Shepherd, who taught me English that year, took me aside and told me I was among the top students in my year, but that he had been prevented from giving me the A I deserved.
By then the damage had been done. I still loved to read, but I was put off any formal English studies. At university, I studied geography and psychology and other interesting social science subjects, and I ended up with a BA in social anthropology and political science.
For a while, during a time in my twenties when I was unemployed, I dabbled with the idea of being a freelance proofreader. But I was unmotivated, and the internet wasn't widely used back then, so the idea never became a reality.
A few years ago I was on Facebook one evening and up popped an advertisement for a private college offering a diploma course in proofreading and editing. I've always loved that sort of thing, I thought, and immediately downloaded and printed out the course prospectus. I kept it in the back of my journal for ages, taking it out regularly to read it and imagine myself studying those interesting modules.
Last year my husband got some contract work and at last we had enough money for me to enrol in the course. I sent off the application form in early August and forgot about it, expecting that I wouldn't start studying until early 2016. But one morning in late August, when I was sick with the flu, my husband brought in a parcel for me: my course readings and six textbooks! And a starting date of 7th September.
This course has changed my life. It has given me a purpose beyond my corporate job. Before I began studying, I knew I wanted to leave my job but I didn't know what I wanted to do. Now I do - and I have a plan for me to eventually quit my corporate job and become a full-time self-employed proofreader and copy editor, working from home.
This course has also given me the confidence to offer my services as a proofreader and copy editor, and I've found myself editing short stories, a novel, a PhD thesis, website text, public relations copy, and more. I've discovered what I have suspected for a long time: I love this work, and I should have been doing it years ago.
This blog will document my journey from the corporate world to the self-employed world {as well as other stuff that interests me}. Welcome! I hope you enjoy your visit to my little online world.
No comments:
Post a Comment