I’ve found that having more material goals and aspirations has helped me out a lot, ironic as it sounds. I did not value money, so I didn’t really understand the value of it. I’d just keep on keeping on at customer service jobs, because I was happy. I didn’t really ever stop to think about how much my expertise in the field and my skills were worth. Hell, I didn’t even know that my writing was worth anything. But through a bunch of things coming together in recent years (one of which admittedly is my relationships with my motivated, educated, and success driven boyfriends of Christmases past and present), I have gotten used to realizing that my abilities have the potential for monetization.

Those things that I do really well? Well, they’re actually worth a lot. And for once in my life, I am acting like it.