In October of 2019, in the midst of unanticipated career momentum, I gave birth to my daughter, Kalliope. Kalli is my most cherished creation, and provides me with the greatest joy I have ever known.
However, as might seem obvious, caring for a small child makes it much harder to work. I am lucky to have an incredibly supportive partner who does what he can to allow me time to write, but the situation has still presented a challenge.
With the way my work was progressing in the lead up to giving birth, I made a huge effort to avoid letting that ball stop rolling. In the months that followed, I performed feature spots at spoken word shows, planned a major collaborative work, and in general, just kept writing.
Obviously, I haven’t been able to work at the same pace as before, and accepting this has meant learning to go easy on myself to a certain extent. Still, I am quite proud of how much I have been able to achieve since Kalli was born.
How do I do it?
I write whenever I can, however I can. I write drafts on my phone when the baby is asleep in my lap. I write with one hand while feeding her with the other. I read my works aloud to her, as if I’m reading to her from a storybook. It is an adaptive process, but in my eyes, every part of life should be seen as an adaptive process. Moving forward means learning to work within new circumstances.
We do what we can, and we learn from it as we go.
-SJJ
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