Nearly a third of the American population, myself included, have emancipated themselves from the traditional 9 to 5 and are freelance workers. Whether you call yourself a temp, an independent contractor, a consultant or are self-employed, when it comes to health benefits, vacation time and retirement plans you’re on your own.

So why choose a way of life that doesn’t offer financial stability, job security or even basic benefits?

My response may seem altruistic, even esoteric, but I stand by it. It has to do with not only creating the world you want to live in but taking the necessary actions to live out your dreams in that world. I am an artist in every sense and in every cell, so you may barely be able to understand what it’s like to push your creative spirit down day by day and show up to a job that may be fulfilling in some regard, but simultaneously leaches your life and taxes your very soul. You could think of it as one of those soul dividing acts.

I was a teacher for nearly a decade and at some point in my teaching career I began to know with certainty that if I didn’t start choosing myself I would be extremely pissed when I looked back decades later, only to see that I didn’t take a chance on myself. Post graduate school I was on a slow boat ride towards job security and began to realize my creative life was dead. The me I used to be had gone and died too. Although I had been raised to believe in the emancipating power of a “good job” I was about to jump ship. Basically I got sick, literally and tired of being in service to someone else’s dynasty. The life I was losing and the work I was putting forth was benefiting a system; a thing that would never benefit me. Yes, I was cultivating and nurturing young Black minds, but the life I was losing everyday was invaluable and I wasn’t going to get a do-over. I was serving something that absorbed infinitely, but we humans are finite and so is love, dedication and talent. How much could I continue to give before it was detrimental? So I learned what I thought I knew; I did not want to be the sacrifice. And now three years later I am still cultivating within myself the language, thoughts and actions of liberation. It’s hard staying free in this world and it’s a daily meditation. I have to focus on my place in the world and my purpose here so I don’t waste it, because I already know about losing your footing; slipping and falling.

In 2005 the Freelancers Union published a report entitled, The Rise of the Freelance Class and of the freelancers surveyed more than 60% “cited some type of freedom as a main benefit to their lifestyle” and nearly 70% “saw freelancing as a way to maintain a more balanced lifestyle.” Meanwhile Families USA reports that “depression is expected to become the second greatest cause of disability worldwide over the next decade.” So while I don’t always know where my next check is coming from, I am in and out of being insured and I struggle; I know my worth, how I want to live this life and I am happy. If a poem wants to come out and be realized I don’t have to ignore it. If I want to exercise in the middle of the day or sleep until one in the afternoon, browse in a bookstore or walk aimlessly in my neighborhood I can do it. We are all living in a world that is increasingly more complicated, moving like the speed of light and getting farther and farther away from the heartbeat, but I’m slowing down. I’m going to exert some control over the ebb and flow and it starts with moving closer, leaning in and listening to self. Marian Wright Edelman calls it, listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.

According to the Freelancers Union I’m also the face of today’s freelancer; college educated, may also have an advanced degree and politically active. What I also have in common with many other freelancers is that we’ve decided not to work the way our grandparents or even our parents did. There have never been any guarantees in life and if it’s possible for a lack of guarantees to move into negative integers, we’re there. The way things are going, there won’t be any social security for me to collect and we should all take note as well as action when we look around and see that the country is not taking care of the elderly. So the young, relatively young and able bodied really have no recourse but to bring about justice and fulfillment for ourselves. As of the 2006 U.S. Census, 47 million are uninsured here with nearly half of that number working full time. Where is the equity and justice in that?

My parents instilled a work ethic in all of their children and my mother took me to get working papers when I turned 13. Furthermore, I was spoon fed and nurtured around the belief that higher education combined with the security of that “good job” equated to some type of freedom. I should say this is not a call for everyone to leave their jobs and renounce all worldly possessions, but it is a call to consciousness. Peter Tosh sang, “Everyone is crying out for peace, none is crying out for justice…” and clearly points out the disconnect as well as the absurdity in calling for peace, particularly in light of the fact that if there is no justice, peace cannot be born. I don’t presume to know what freedom or justice looks like for others. For me it starts with living a life that I feel joyful about participating in. I have no idea what just rewards, punishments, or afterlife (if any) await me. Therefore, I have to live here, not like a metaphor or simile, but as a woman who knows liberation and justice intimately because I live it everyday.

by Adisa Vera Beatty