At Long Last
It's been nearly two years since I managed, under fire-drill-like circumstances, to produce an essay for a magazine contest I had absolutely no chance of winning.
At the time, I was so happy to have gotten the thing done—and so grateful to the GPO for allowing me to get it postmarked late on a Sunday night, just hours before the deadline—that I didn't focus at all on submitting it to other publications. I just left it on my hard drive to gather the electronic equivalent of dust.
Then, after almost a year and a half, this very nice mention prompted an editor at MAMM, where I was interning, to ask if the blog might provide fodder for a short piece in the magazine.
Along with the handful of posts I gave her to consider, I included a copy of the essay-contest submission.
I found out that it was going to be published—in substantially pared-down form—a few weeks later, on my first day back to work after my father died. The news was bittersweet, of course.
The essay actually appeared in print just after New Year's. So yes, I have been holding out on you. But for good reason: because of technical difficulties, it wasn't posted online until yesterday.
Here it is, my first official byline.
At the time, I was so happy to have gotten the thing done—and so grateful to the GPO for allowing me to get it postmarked late on a Sunday night, just hours before the deadline—that I didn't focus at all on submitting it to other publications. I just left it on my hard drive to gather the electronic equivalent of dust.
Then, after almost a year and a half, this very nice mention prompted an editor at MAMM, where I was interning, to ask if the blog might provide fodder for a short piece in the magazine.
Along with the handful of posts I gave her to consider, I included a copy of the essay-contest submission.
I found out that it was going to be published—in substantially pared-down form—a few weeks later, on my first day back to work after my father died. The news was bittersweet, of course.
The essay actually appeared in print just after New Year's. So yes, I have been holding out on you. But for good reason: because of technical difficulties, it wasn't posted online until yesterday.
Here it is, my first official byline.
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 1:35 PM
1 Comments:
Bravo! Congratulations on your first official byline! I enjoyed reading the article and applaud your being out there. My sister, a type I diabetic, had long kept her disease hidden but recently gave up the inconvenience of going to extreme measures to hide her blood sugar testing and insulin pump. Her being out there has resulted in similar positive experiences. Wearing her pump under her swim suit at the beach, she was stopped by parents of a young girl who had only days previously been diagnosed. She was able to answer their questions, clear up several misconceptions, and give them lots of hope. I have learned that when we go through something and share, we find that we are not alone. Thank you for sharing!
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