Briefly describe the job that you love

I am a writer. I work in corporate communications for a financial services company, so I'm kind of like a reporter I guess you could say but instead of reporting the local or national news, I'm reporting what's going on inside the company and then sharing that with sometimes the employees and sometimes people outside of the company.

Why do you love your job so much?

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. I think even when I was in preschool I knew that I wanted to be a writer and I didn't really know how that would pan out. I think that there were times when I thought I would be an author and write books or.. who knows what it was, but I just loved being able to write because that's what I've enjoyed my entire life and it's so much fun for me. And I think throughout the course of my career one of the things I've realized I loved so much about writing is that you're kind of teaching in a way. You're taking information that might be complex or maybe not so interesting, and you're turning it into something that people want to read, and that they can learn about to enhance their life or to enhance their success at work or whatever it might be so I've really enjoyed just helping people to understand things better and helping people learn to express themselves more clearly, as well.

Did you always know that this is what you want to do?

There was never a question in my mind that I would ever want to do anything else, I think – which is probably pretty uncommon, but I think that's just something that I've always loved. I always loved to read. I always had a book in my hand. I loved writing contests and I just always did really well… That was the subject that I excelled in and it was the subject I enjoyed the most. It came really easily to me and naturally to me. So, it was always fun. I would write short stories in my free time and try to write novels when I was in fifth grade – just little silly things...poems, all kinds of stuff. So growing up I knew that I wanted to write, and I didn't really know what kind of writing careers were out there. I guess I was just assumed that if I wanted to be a writer that meant that I would be sitting at home in my little room writing books whether it be children's books, adult books, or whatever... fiction, nonfiction. I kind of just viewed it as the only path. When you're a kid you have a more narrow way of looking at things and as I decided to choose English as my major in college I chose it because I loved it. I knew that I wanted to do something with writing or something with language. So people would sometimes say "well, what do you want to do with that major?" And people always assumed that I wanted to teach English. And I didn't really want to teach English – not that I don't enjoy teaching – because in a way I think writing is a form of teaching but I wanted to be the one writing not the one teaching someone else how to write. So I guess I kind of went into the major not really 100% sure of what the career outcome would be but I just knew it was something that I was passionate about and I figured if I pursued what I loved to do that options would come up. Companies need this companies need people who know how to communicate clearly. When you can communicate clearly everything runs more efficiently and especially in today's world where email is such an important part of you know when you're working in a company you have to know how to write because good writers are able to be more respected because when you're communicating in writing - that's the first impression that people will see about you. So writing is important for that it's important that people be able to get what you're saying, understand wit quickly, and process it so that they can go on to do what they need to do. You know, take action based on what you're telling them to do. I was just kind of blown away by how valued writing is, and communication is, in really any setting but corporate settings in particular.

Have there been any major influencers along your journey?

I think my dad comes to mind as somebody who mentored me or kind of guided me through the importance of doing something you love, number one. But also because he always worked in a corporate environment he was able to see how companies work and that the skills the passions that I had would definitely fit into that kind of environment. He is always been really encouraging of my writing and of the value of what I do in a corporate setting. And I also had a professor in college that I took several classes with her, and is really enjoyed what she taught me about business writing and nonfiction writing and just writing in general she was always very encouraging and kind of helped me to see what was out there. And it was actually outside her classroom that I saw the ad for the internship at the financial services company that I work for now that led to my career so, that's pretty cool. One of my favorite things I loved about this job since day one was the variety of people I get to meet. I do a lot of interviewing, so especially when I was working full-time I did a lot of interviewing, so getting to meet people from all areas of the company with all different kinds of skills whether we were interviewing people for maybe a company magazine article - a personality profile type thing - which, those are the best those are so much fun... or maybe were interviewing somebody about tax laws and regulations and it's super boring, but just getting to see their passion for it and getting to translate that into something that people can understand and you know just seeing things "click" is so neat.

I was going through a box of old stuff recently a few weeks ago, and I found a notebook from my seventh grade writing class, and my teacher had had us do all this writing prompts. A couple times a week she would ask us a question, and the question on that day was something about "what is your dream job?" And I wrote… And I was 12 years old at the time... and I wrote that I want to be a writer, and I want some kind of a job that will allow me to stay home with my kids most of the time and looking back I thought "really I thought that back then? That's amazing that I'm living this out. Who knew that that would come true – that I would truly be living my dream?" It just gave me such a deeper appreciation for what I'm doing right now and how special it is for me to be able to do that and have the best of both worlds. So currently I just work one day a week in the office and then the rest of the time I'm able to be home with my son, which I love – that's the most important thing in my life, but it's need to still have the best of both worlds and be able to enjoy the career aspect and keep my foot in the door for the future while also focusing my time and energy right now while he's little on raising him so it's a lot of fun and I'm thankful for the opportunity.

I'm Erica Fitzgerald I'm a writer and a mom and I do what I love .