A stay@home mum who learns online

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

Aristotle

When I stopped working — due to a pregnancy nervous breakdown — I knew that I needed to redesign my whole life, and set sail in another career direction. Though I had many options — I formerly worked in sales, I have a diploma in secretary, I worked in a diamond factory, I worked as a part-time land hostess and waitress, and with a Human & Social Biology college grade I could have considered taking a course to work as a nurse — but unfortunately all of these careers did not match my new family life, for I really wanted to be present for my children, be here with them during holidays, take good care of them when they’re ill, or even welcome them home with home-made cakes and biscuits, thus the choice of taking these sabbatical years to raise my kids. But I also needed time to manage my mental health that had become so fragile, I needed time to put myself back on track, and understand on my own the strange changes that were taking place within me; and as most of these works are submitted to many stress factors, I then decided that it had to be a complete work reconversion.

Then one day I fell on an ad where a web-based customer service company was recruiting housewives, all the while giving a training incentive allowance, and afterwards a job placement in their company after completion of trainings. And as the part-time working hours were very interesting, I decided to give it a try. However, as I did not practice on a computer at home (strangely, I form part of this group of people that’s paranoid about the Internet, meds, microwave, detergents, and many more… yep, I am knee deep into speculation😂), and perhaps still a little bit mentally fragile, I failed.

Nevertheless, that little elsewhere escapade helped me understand that I needed to upgrade my skill in basic computerisation, but most important, to be connected to the internet, only for the sake of being employable; but this initiation also made me realise that my new job chase will be in the ICT sector. So, all the while taking care of my babies, and as well as working through my mild depression, I decided to learn on the go online, so as to not lose more of my precious time. And that’s when it happened — blog, website, and stay@home employment caught my attention — thus, we could work from home if we had a website with a regular updated blog, and it was too late for everything else, for I only had eyes on blogging, obsessing over the fact that it was possible for me to make a living online, all the while raising my children, for that’s what all of these websites were writing about (now I know that things online work differently). But I was desperate to get there, to that point where I’ll be able to make money online, to know if I’ll fail or succeed… so I rushed headlong into it, firmly believing that I’ll eventually get to that place… but in the end, it’s way more difficult than I thought.

Between the year 2014 and 2015 I created my first blog lovelyricism on WordPress.com, and as blogging is synonymous to creative writing and content creation, for it’s by writing well and by showing the needed pictures that one can attract an audience online, thus I wrote, took pictures, and created content. And as WordPress.com has a very creative and supporting community, I was inspired to blog, write poems and fiction, and take pictures, until reminder that I always wanted to write a book. And it’s here, on this platform, on WordPress.com, that Darcocyte germinated in my mind, when on one evening I wrote ‘don’t go ploughing the infertile land my child, for the man in the vessel will try to lure you’ to submit to their daily prompt, and where instinctively I copy-pasted specifically this sentence in my word processor, knowingly that I wanted it to become a book. And that’s when I really became obsessed with the thought of actually becoming an author… it was too late by then to change my mind, for the machine in my head was already working; my star in the sky had already started to change direction so as to align elsewhere.

I am not a skillful writer who can easily write captivating books, for I never took any creative writing courses, nor even talk English fluently; I still need my French-English dictionary or Google translator — the struggle is real — but I’m so much into self-learning, so obsessed with blogging, and passionate about creative-writing, so self-determined, and fond of challenges that make me blossom, that I was sure that I could make it, thus persevered. I thought, and still think of the internet as a place where everyone who is enough passionate about their craft can really achieve something, and this no matter who they are, or even where they come from, for in the end of the day, the color of your skin, a name, or even religion, doesn’t matter at all, for only what matters is the unfolding of your understanding.

So, many writing(s), and loads of mistakes, and re-writing(s), and loads of mistakes, and crying, and dramas, and loads of re-mistakes, and anger, and frustrations, and re-re-writing(s) later, I am now learning to edit on my own, and as well as being auto-critical of my work. And all of this has been possible through learning on the go online, assisted by web materials and tools like search bars to quickly do my research; writing softwares that store and help with the organisation of my online documents, and as well help with spelling errors.

Though the process of self-learning is difficult and time consuming, I strangely like every step that I take with complete confidence and all the freedom that comes with it. I now understand that I can go at my own pace, for rushing things will get me nowhere, and that patience, passion, and self-encouragement are necessary all along the way of this long journey.

Finally, I know that I won’t regret nothing, for through self-learning I have gained the type of knowledge that will serve me for a long time, and where this adventure has turned out to be one of my most crucial challenge, for on it rests my self-made future.

I don’t love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful.

Natalie Portman

Some tips when learning-by-doing online

Throughout these years I learned through the hard way that your computer can be subjected to viruses or any other kind of digital threats, but also that as a non-tech-savvy experiencing with computerlogy, while not knowing what you’re doing, might bring about minor/major accidents within your personal computer system. If I had not saved my documents on a USB Key Darcocyte would have been lost forever.

Sadly, it was not the same for the rest of my work, but now that I have well understood the lessons, as often as possible I save my work on an external drive. If you are not tech-savvy, please, remember to always save your precious work on a flash drive or USB key (now everything is automatically saved on the cloud), or else, always keep the contact number of a good informatician/ethical hacker at hand, otherwise if you’re a passionate technophile you can consider to take a course in computer programming so as to know in depth about your tech-tool.