Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

Just a Song Before I Go

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I’m off on holiday until Wednesday. On Thursday, I have house guests (notice I didn’t say “company”) arriving and staying through Sunday.

I have no idea if there is wi-fi where I am staying. More importantly, I don’t know if I will write. I am curious to see if I am compelled to write.

I know the habit is there…I love coming to my computer and brain-dumping every day. That was what I wanted. For the last 26 days, I’ve kept that promise to myself…to write…and that is well beyond the required time to make it a habit.

Now it calls me. Let’s see if it calls me long-distance from another state.

I do believe it will.

Also — In the likely event that my vacation will turn into something resembling a Lifetime Movie Event, here are the words I would like to leave you with. This makes me look really clever and wise if I get buried under a pile of rubble or kidnapped by my own long-lost twin who I never knew existed:

Have a good one. Calm down. Trust yourself. Be generous. Be quiet. Be bold. Kick butt. Go home. Thus ends the canon of my advice. Print it out, carry it with you, and you need never be without it again