The year was 2003, and I was ready to take my online political musings to the next level, beyond the message boards on which I had cut my teeth, where I would get a Mt. St. Helens-sized adrenaline rush every time I doggedly managed to get the best of the Ivy League-educated leftists who once thought I was an easy mark.
I created a site, sistertoldjah.com, stemming from a nickname that caught on for me at one of those message boards (for old-schoolers, yes, it was a play on the famous 1992 Sister Souljah moment involving then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, whom I shamefully supported at the time).
I dabbled a bit with the site, tweaking it and getting some cutesy front page designs done so I could switch themes when I wanted to, but I didn't begin blogging in earnest until October 3, 2003. The goal? To get my message out, of course, and to maybe one day be able to live my dream of making a living out of doing what I have loved to do since I was 12 years old: write.
On that exact same day, another blogger got his start at his own site, Captain's Quarters. It was the legendary Ed Morrissey, for whom I grew to have a great deal of admiration and respect.
Ed was (and is) exceptionally good at what he did, and he went on to make a career out of it at HotAir.com. But, though I poured my heart and soul into my little site, I also worked a full-time administrative job, and simply could not devote the time needed to really make something of the site on the level of a Morrissey or InstaPundit.
I wrote when I could, took the occasional guest-blogging stint, did some small part-time paid writing gigs in my spare time, and at one point even went in together with a friend on a now-defunct political news-opinions site. But I was falling short of my dream.
To make matters more frustrating, at one point, one of the "Occupy" movements doxxed me at the urging of a group of Democrat AWFLs here in North Carolina who did not like the fact that I refused to keep my mouth shut on social media (where I had built a decent following) on things going on here. The doxxing obviously wasn't something I wanted to happen, for safety reasons and because I feared being "canceled" by my job if they were put under pressure from local woke mobs. Nevertheless, it galvanized me to continue on.
Around 2017 or 2018, however, I resigned myself to the possibility that my dream would never become a reality. I was also becoming more involved with caregiving for my dad, helping my mom with what he (and she) needed to help get him through each day. I contented myself with posting on social media platforms and putting up the rare post at my site when I could. I was immensely thankful for my full-time job, but I felt like a caged bird, unable to truly fly freely.
Then, January 2019 came. In the middle of the month, just a few days shy of my birthday, I got the news no one wants to hear. I was laid off from my job of nearly 18 years. I'd seen it coming, was not bitter about it, but had held on since they had been gracious enough to let me work from home for five years after their North Carolina office had closed (my job was to assist a senior leader from one of the other offices who, before I started in the assistant role, had been putting in 80-hour work weeks).
My first thought, of course, was, "well what do I do now?"
I kid you not: My second thought was... is it time to shoot for my dream?
I'd built up a small nest egg in part from my part-time writing gigs, and told myself I had a little "cushion" financially to support me in the event my leap of faith turned out to be a flop.
24-hours after I licked my job-loss wounds, I put out feelers on social media. Reached out to some contacts. I landed three freelance writing jobs in a roughly two-day time span. I was shocked, honestly, that anyone would want to take a chance on a rusty blogger like myself (that's not fishing, btw, I truly was rusty at that point) who was less well-known than her fragile ego would have liked to admit.
On January 22nd, 2019, my first post was published at RedState. What a way to celebrate my birthday! I was branching out, giving my dream a go. Putting my best foot forward.
SEE ALSO (VIP): The Woman in the Mirror
But, man, was I scared to bits! It's a little nerve-wracking as a writer coming into a new place and working on learning the audience and all the ins and outs. And at times, the first few months were rocky for me as I tried to chart my course and strived to fit in.
But the RedState GOAT, streiff (y'all may have heard of him), mercifully took me under his wing, and as a result, I began to take flight, hitting my stride about 10 months after I started. Sometime after that, alongside some pretty amazing colleagues and thanks to generous RedState readers who gifted me with their time and feedback, I began to soar.
I was no longer a caged bird. I was flying high. And the cancel culture wacktivists had failed. As a bonus, HotAir was a sister site of RedState's, which meant I got to be colleagues with Ed Morrissey after all that time.
Seven years later, I still pinch myself, not thinking this could be real, that people out there actually want to read what I have to say.
A lot of people helped make this happen, and I remain grateful to each and every one of them, including the RedState reader community.
The only "bad news" here is for the rabid left, because, well, you know. The fun has only just begun.
