Shanon Adame

It’s been a while since I have posted here. I graduated just a few weeks ago with my bachelor’s in writing and I have been transitioning from student life to working life.

Things have been a whirlwind since March. While still in school full-time, finishing out the last semester of my degree, I was offered a job as a crime reporter with our local newspaper.

Working for a newspaper was one of my childhood goals and a dream job for me, so I excitedly accepted, event though it meant adding a full-time job to my full-time school course load.

It also meant that I would be leaving my internship working on the show, Snapped, which I was sure was going to turn into full-time work after graduation.

My first full day at the paper, I went to put my lunch in the fridge and I noticed a glass Tupperware container full of what looked like homemade soup, shoved back into the corner of the fridge.

It looked a little old with some layers starting to separate and had a container of yogurt sitting on top.

The next day, it was still there. And the next. And the next.

For three months now, as soon as I open the fridge, I look to see if the soup is still there. And it is. I started to reflect on my fascination with the soup — why does it bring me comfort to see it, in all its fermenting glory?

I think, the soup gives me a sense of stability.

In my first two weeks of the paper, I watched as someone was laid-off, a brutal introduction into what can be a very unstable industry at the moment.

I was transitioning from almost 10 years of school to graduation, and then a career.

In my first month of the paper, the sports reporter left and then, in my third month, the education reporter announced that she was leaving and I was offered the position. In just three months, I went from student and intern, to crime reporter, to graduate, to the county’s education reporter.

That’s a lot of big change for someone who can easily become a creature of habit.

The soup tethers me.

All this to say, I am back from hiding. I don’t want to lose sight of what I love and that is to write fiction as well as travel and outdoors writing.

Things may be spotty until they can replace me in the crime reporting position. Until they do, I am covering crime, education and taking quite a few of the duties of the employee who was laid off.

It can be overwhelming at times. In those moments, when I find it hard to catch my breath, I will look to the soup.