A man approached me yesterday as I was climbing into my van in NYC. "Is this the airport shuttle?" "No," I said, before he could toss in his bag. Just my family car. When you have nine kids, you are use to everything being big, both in number and in size. Two hotel rooms, three car seats, four pizzas. The list goes on. Being in NYC, however, can make a person feel small. I attended the American Society of Journalists and Authors conference (asja.org). Jane, my friend, writing coach, cheerleader, and Memphis Parent editor, suggested we go when I told her I lived so close to the City. Going to NYC for a writer's conference made me feel big time. Until I got there. The place was buzzing with energy. Swarming with writers. "What do you do for a living?" I asked one particularly chatty woman. She looked at me quizzically. "I write." Oh. You mean you can DO that? The keynote, Jen Singer (http://mommasaid.net/index.aspx), is a pioneer mom blogger. And a five time book author. And a Huggies, Hershey, Pull-Ups spokesperson, as well as a guest on The Today Show, The Early Show, and practically every show in between. By the time I left the conference, I felt, well, small. Until I got into my van to go home. There I was, The Big, Bad Mama, cutting my 12 passenger straight through the NYC traffic. No matter that it was Sunday morning and traffic was minimal. It still counted. My van is just one representation of, for lack of a better word, the bigness of my family. No, I am not a big time writer, but the mom of a big time family who has a little time to write. For me, that is big enough. |