Unemployment and what turned out to be a cover letter to Tina Fey

Dear Tina Fey,

I know you didn't ask, but with a global pandemic, I've recently found myself unemployed with lots of time on my hands, as the newspaper I reported for closed its doors. I thought you should know that I think I would make a great addition to one of your movie or television projects. Yeah, I know, I sound like a straight-up weirdo, but the more I watch your scripts play out, the more it makes me want to tap into a former dream I've held.

In college, I had every intention of one day owning my own production company.

I loved shooting, cutting video, and like I always have, writing. It made perfect sense. I could see me writing scripts for television shows and movies. But then I got engaged, and decided after graduation that I wanted to stay in Massachusetts. So as a recent graduate of communication, I looked for jobs in broadcast news, which had and still have, appallingly low salaries. And when I say low, I mean my semester at Worcester State, including room, board and all the works actually totaled to a higher number than a year's salary at one station I'd reached out to. Getting my face out there wasn't worth it at that point.

So, I hustled.

I continued to waitress, as I had since I was 16. I also served as a substitute teacher and teacher's aid; first at Chandler Magnet in Worcester, and then at my former high school in Sturbridge, Tantasqua Regional. Between a busy schedule, a fiancé that preferred I be home when he was home, and an admitted lack of confidence, I forgot about my dream like the killer pair of shoes that I bought and hid in the back of my closet that I recently found.

The hustle and having grown up in a hair salon actually taught me a lot about more about communication than I think any formal schooling ever has. Don't get me wrong, I love school and would probably be chipping away at another degree if it fell in line with my finances and time, but it's true. As a shampoo girl in my mother's salon, watching her and my three aunts, Auntie Terry, Auntie Gail and Auntie Bev, communicate with people as they styled hair set a foundation in my grasp of verbal skills and emotional sensory that is truly second to none. Then, stepping into my role as a waitress, I learned how to communicate with all kinds of people. Before I knew it, I had a host of regulars that would come in and ask for me. Restaurant life isn't for everyone, but man, I have gotten to know people on entirely different levels because of serving. It was my constant communication that actually landed me my first job in print news. I still remember it. Brenda Earnest, a kindergarten teacher at Burgess Elementary School, used to come into the restaurant I worked at, at least three times a week and sit at Table 23. Single Big Beef burger, hold everything, no bun, french fries and a Diet Coke. Just as most of the servers knew Brenda's order, she knew most of us. Whenever I waited on her, we'd sit and chat, and I would tell her about gigs and what I'd hope to do beyond running requested items to customers. One day, Brenda came in and handed me a newspaper that had an ad seeking a photojournalist.

"You should do this," she said. "You're a great photographer."

At the time, my resume reel only included more broadcast news and this wonderful news piece of me in a sweater dress on a treadmill. The only photos I had on hand were black-and-white prints. I gave it a shot anyways and scanned my images and copied them to a CD. The editor I submitted them to said he was pleased, but wondered if I could produce anything digitally.

I had never worked with a digital camera before, but working in black-and-white film, in manual mode, I figured I should be able to make the transition. I bought my first digital camera and was hired as a freelancer photojournalist. After the company found out I could write, they had me doing that as well.

Fast forward 10 years, I'm now an award-winning reporter and photojournalist that has penned and captured the stories of hundreds of people. But like when I first started, I have still been hustling as a news editor, as a freelance reporter and as a waitress, up until the global pandemic swallowed up, at least temporarily, those jobs.

In the meantime, I've spent a lot of time wandering around my apartment in the hills of the Berkshires, occasionally crying at movies I've seen a million times, laughing at my own jokes, painting, cooking and digging in the dirt. All the while, I find myself remembering the dream of writing a script for a movie or television show that I had stuffed in the back of my closet.

I'm not an actor looking to be cast into a role. I'm an unemployed writer that's taken this quarantine time to find herself again. And where I find myself the happiest is in sharing stories of my constant shenanigans and ridiculous heartbreaks, and sharing my words. Some day, I would like to write alongside you, because I think the way you write has a significant impact on this world.

Best,

Emily