My name is Erika Blue.
I’m a writer. Words are my favorite form of magic. I’ve been obsessed with books my entire life. Even before I could read. It started with stories as a child and soon I had morphed into a full blown bibliophile before beginning kindergarten. Add to this a mother who speaks several languages and you have a linguistically obsessed hobby scholar in the making. I love learning and was very much like a real life Lisa Simpson (I played clarinet instead of sax). My interest in languages grew through school, running wild when I was enrolled into a partial Spanish immersion program in sixth grade. Despite being on honor rolls throughout my primary and secondary education, college elicited less prestigious inclinations while feeding my obsession to acquire knowledge.
When my student debt mounted I stopped to keep from amassing a lifelong debt before I could get a degree I felt uncertain about (to the utter dismay of many family and friends). I loved college, and miss resources being preapproved, structured, scripted, discussed and refined for my consumption. In reality, I know I could’ve (and would have) taken every course the university had to offer, in each every subject and field, and still, would have come up wanting for more. To quote Matt Damon; “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library (Goodwill Hunting).” I mean, people spend money on more frivolous things (does mental inventory of shoe and record collection, contemplates number of ‘Thirsty Thursdays’ attended, *whistles inconspicuously*).
Among my other talents, writing has given me avenues into many fields I hadn’t even known existed. I’ve been solicited to do everything from tutoring, editing, drafting business proposals and procedures, maintaining records to writing resumes, composing machine operation manuals to adverts about decorative doorknobs; to name just an odd few. Helping friends design their first websites or just revise their content is probably some of my more rewarding work. It can be very difficult to see yourself as a worthy professional when starting out on a new path. My words have been a source of active perception shifts in this arena for many people. It’s one thing for a friend to tell you that your work is good. It’s another thing entirely for someone to draft pages of content detailing your strengths, services, achievements and limitless potential. Maybe the content is for your business website, or maybe summarized in a cover letter for a job you feel is slightly out of your league.
It’s been greatly satisfying to see people become increasingly sure in and of themselves as their perception shifts. More often than not, the momentum they’ve held back so long is finally allowed go full tilt and carry them off into doing something they love. Some days, it feels as though I get to play the fairy godmother. I mean I normally use a keyboard, but for the sake of poetic liberties, I love to wield my pen as a wand… Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo