Life & Work with Megan Patiry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Patiry.

Hi Megan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
When I think of “my story,” my mind immediately conjures up an image of my mother, pregnant.

Do you know the theory of how playing classical music for infants in the womb can cause a range of benefits, including increasing IQ?

Well, I’m convinced at this point that my mother wasn’t’ exactly playing classical while I rested in her womb.

Instead, she was reading.

I say this because I can’t remember a moment in my story when I didn’t have a book to finish, or to begin. From my earliest memories, words have been like an additional limb, woven into place by (what I assume) was watching my mother constantly reading.

I remember even as a child having the deepest respect for stories. To me, they felt like living, tangible dreams that, unlike our sleeping dreams, we could pick up again and again while we are awake.

This fascination with these word-worlds carried over into adulthood, and looking back, I never really thought of myself as anything other than a writer. In college, I dabbled in photography and design, which lent amazing experiences and skills, but they always felt like accents to language.

To be honest, I didn’t aim to be a freelance writer at the outset of my career. Instead, I was very interested in writing novels, and all of my initial attempts at writing were short stories. It was only in college that I began to search for an avenue of writing that could “pay the bills” while still leaving me inspired by the work. In my sophomore year I interned with a student news site and ended up published on The Huffington Post, which truly turned out to be the key to getting my career off the ground early.

From there, I ended up building writing samples in the nutrition niche for a few years, then slowly transitioned into doing more copywriting. Now, this might seem like a broad overview, but to be honest: it wasn’t easy, especially financially. Freelancing requires a certain type of resilience in the face of insecurity. Many times (especially when I was in my early 20s) I considered giving in to finding a secure 9-5 just to achieve a sense of solidity. However, whenever I would come close to the edge, I would feel this gnawing sense of dread in my stomach, fiercely whispering: “Don’t you dare.” To listen to that voice in the face of looming economic reality took a tremendous amount of faith, and I’m thankful every day that for whatever reason, I was supported in having it.

I found this quote by Neville Goddard long after those early years of struggle, but I think of those times when I read it today. He states that:

“Faith is loyalty to the unseen reality.”

We may not have the reality we desire in our hands at this very moment, but if we can feel it and see it in our mind and in the deepest recesses of our heart, we must sail toward it, despite the insecurity of the waves … in full knowing that we’ll reach our shore eventually.

In the last few years, my focus has been on expanding creatively with poetry, and publishing my first book with A.B. Baird Publishing, The Alice Effect.

To hold my own book in my hands after decades of holding others’ feels like a surreal dream (I still can’t believe it) and a simple confirmation (it was only a matter of time).

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
It’s tempting to simply say “I’m an author,” or “I’m a writer,” because both are technically true. However, I think these things we label ourselves as go much deeper than a profession. I would consider myself first and foremost an Observer. Some of my earliest memories are of a cacophony of details, be it a certain pink cloud formation during sunrise before school, or the greying hairs on my first dog’s chin. Sometimes I feel as though writing is simply a mechanism to capture these observations and their meanings, before they are lost to the next moment.

With that being said, professionally I am an author and freelance writer, as well as a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner. My freelance career has centered around the nutrition niche in past years, but I would say my true passion and specialty lies in psychology, and bridging the expanse between science and spirituality.

For instance, my next book involves heavy scientific research on NDEs (near-death experiences) and how our fear of death has become a driving force for various societal problems on the planet. This will be interwoven with a creative aspect that hasn’t been done before, which is truly exciting (if not a bit scary).

What does success mean to you?
To me, true success is simply … reaching awareness.

Life flies by, like a meteor blazing past the skies of our souls. And, we spend the majority of it in pursuit of the material aspect of success. We go-go-go for the income, the house, the lifestyle, the title. Years pass. One week blends into the next decade.

Then, one day, we wake up and suddenly realize … our parents are older. Our kids are older. We haven’t seen our best friend in 5 years. We haven’t seen the stars – truly seen the stars – in 8.

Success to me is NOT having this realization … because I became aware of the most important and brilliant aspects of life BEFORE I missed them.

Finances are important, but no amount of money will bring you what awareness will. Awareness allows you to relish every moment of life as it is occurring. It allows you to see beyond the veil of standard moments; to realize that these exact moments are in fact the ones you will long for more of in later years … so you better pay attention.

Yes. Success, to me, is not missing even a whisper of this life.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.meganrose.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganrosepatiry/?hl=en
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1949321290/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Image Credits:
Megan Patiry