I’ve enjoyed every profession I’ve had. Only my first job (teaching high school history in the 1970s) and my present one (writing a series of historical novels) relate directly to my training in college.
Everything in between falls roughly in the “fake it ‘til you make it” category. In the early 1980s, with huge community support, I started a science museum. Then for 22 years, with beloved partners, I owned a wilderness expedition program that strived to make kids stronger. My last job-for-a-paycheck was building community by leading a rural arts council in Central Pennsylvania.
Like every good job, my professions helped me to learn more about myself and inculcated a myriad of skills both hard and soft. I believe I was successful through hard work, the good will of many people, and luck. And (and this is important), it didn’t hurt that I am white, male, heterosexual, tall, and well educated.
Now, I come full circle in my professional life; back to history. I hope to continue learning about myself by delving into the lives of characters who are different than I. Who didn’t have the advantages that I had. Who were more capable. More challenged. Heroic.
And through this blog, I hope to draw around me a community of people who want to make the world a better place through empathy, an acknowledgement that history wasn’t only made by old white guys, and a desire to read and write some really cool stories.
Dang, this is fun.
RA Smith
History Pendulum 