Unschoolers Earning Money, Following Passions
How can unschooling kids keep following their passions once they get to an age where they need to earn money to support themselves?
Some unschoolers step straight into a career based on their interests
Some might decide to get a job in a completely different field and continue following their interests in their spare time
Others will find a job that will earn them money while they keep working on their passions. They hope that eventually, they can give up their jobs and earn money from their passions instead
My daughters Imogen and Sophie are following the last option. They are both working in a cafe in a local town, and the money they earn allows them to keep developing their passions for photography, writing and music.
The other day, someone said to Sophie, “You don’t want to work in a cafe all your life, do you?” Now the woman didn’t say anything else, but I wonder if she was thinking: Shouldn’t Sophie have loftier ambitions than making coffee, cooking food and serving customers? What about going to university? Shouldn’t she study for a tertiary qualification which will allow her to do something above average?
Even though I don’t think there is anything wrong with cafe work – working in a business is both interesting and challenging – Sophie does have other ambitions. She wants to keep using her talents. She wants to share them with the world. And she hopes to earn money from them at the same time!
Imogen is already earning money from one of her passions. She has just published her first novel, The Crystal Tree. If you’d like to check it out, see the links in the show notes!
In this week’s podcast episode 129: UnschoolersEarning Money, Following Passions, I’m talking about what Imogen and Sophie are doing at the moment.
I also answer the questions:
Do we have to finish everything we start?
What have I been doing recently?
Why did I leave Instagram?
Why is my daughter Gemma-Rose painting the interior of our house?
And where can you buy a copy of Imogen’s first novel, The Crystal Tree?
Show Notes
Imogen
Blog: Write, Rewrite, Read
Novel: The Crystal Tree, available as a paperback or Kindle ebook.
When I wrote The Crystal Tree I specifically wanted to write a main character who wasn’t kick butt awesome or sword-wielding. I wanted to write a feminine character who made her way through the world using her wit and allying herself with the right people to get her where she wanted to go, and who used what skills she had instead of needing to be as strong as a man. I guess I wanted to write a different kind of strong female, and hopefully, I succeeded!
Imogen Elvis
TV Series
The Great Interior Design Challenge
You might find some episodes on Netflix or other sites.
Podcast
Episode 86: Are You an Unschooling Multipotentialite?