Dani's Writing Journey

You don’t need to be an actor, a New York Times Bestselling author, or an influencer to have meant something to those around you. I believe everyone leaves their own mark on the world. Whether that mark is good or bad depends on your actions and what you want out of life.

Leaving your mark on a smaller community, rather than the world as a whole, can be more rewarding (although that shouldn’t be the ultimate goal) and less daunting to accomplish. I believe that to leave behind a legacy you can be proud of, it starts with the small decisions you make. These decisions can be the career choice you make (what do you enjoy enough to do for forty hours a week, and how can you use this to help others), the organizations you donate to (or volunteer with), or it can be something as small as standing up to a bully. Each decision you make can and will affect your own life and the lives of those around you.

How can a career help you leave a legacy behind?

Even if you don’t choose to go into medicine or law (you don’t have to work for a billion-dollar corporation to work in the legal field, but instead can fight to protect the environment, abuse victims, or medical malpractice victims), your career choice can still be used to benefit those around you.

I will use my own work as an example of how a job can impact on people’s lives and help create your own legacy. Currently, I work as a paralegal at a personal injury firm; I work hand in hand with the attorneys to help people who were injured in car accidents or slip and falls get some reimbursement (or more) for their medical bills. Although I am not an attorney and I cannot argue in court on the firm’s client’s behalf, my work makes a massive impact on the client’s cases (even if they don’t realize it). In my free time, I am actively writing for this blog and writing poetry, which I hope to get published in a literary magazine one day. I hope to use my skills as a writer (which I have honed through out my bachelor’s degree in criminal justice studies and creative writing, my master’s degree in creative writing, and within my day job) to make sure history is written down, even if the history is written in the form of a poem. Writing fiction, nonfiction or poetry can ensure the day-to-day events will live to see another generation. This can include writing to ensure minorities’ voices are heard but not spoken over. Even if your job doesn’t involve writing, but instead is some sort of customer service job just being kind to the people who come into your shop can leave behind a smaller legacy.

Other reasons you can leave behind a good legacy behind.

Of course, your job choice doesn’t have to be the reason you leave behind a good mark or legacy on the community around you. But what can do this you might ask? By being a good person and helping those in need.

A smaller choice you can make to leave a mark on your community is to stand up for those whose voices are being over looked. This can be as small as standing up to a school or work bully or as big as lifting up the voices of minority. Of course the later will take more work on your end and will force you to do some research to why these voices need to be heard, but in the end help those in need is a worthy cause. Of course, you shouldn’t help if all you want is to be seen as a good person who might leave a good story behind but instead help because you see the mistreatment for what it is and want to genuinely help (I can promise you there is a difference and those you are trying to help will see through it).

If you cannot make it to some of the protests to help those groups in need (I have missed a few due to fear of the pandemic or being unable to take the time off of work last minute), do research as to why this protest is going on and educate those around you when the group in question cannot. Ask questions but don’t force the person to answer because they might be too tired of answer the same thing over and over again. Listen when the person within the minority group speaks and take what they say in. Just being a safe space for someone can help you leave a mark on even one person; I know that is huge for me as a queer (but straight passing) women. When a straight person will listen to my fears and stand up for me when I am not in the room is huge and it makes me feel so cared for.

Can the legacy you leave behind be bad?

Just as your good decisions can leave a good mark or legacy behind so can your bad decisions. When you bully, abuse, or try to take away people’s rights you are choosing to leave behind a legacy of a shitty person who only cared for themselves. If you vote for a man that mocks disabilities, jokes about forcing certain acts on women, separate families that look a certain way “for the greater good”, or that recommends a person who doesn’t believe in science for a position that depends on science than your legacy or mark on society has been tainted. I know this will upset some people because they truly don’t want to hear this but I refuse to stay quite in order to keep this group happy.