Because I Write

Earlier this month, I was scrolling through the explore page on Instagram when I stumbled on a picture that forced my right thumb to pause. I recognized the subject of the picture - it was the front book cover of my third novella. Out of curiosity, I tapped on the picture and read the comments underneath it. Again, something caught my attention.

This time, it was a comment that read “Omg I can't believe it's Tobi Nifesi's book. He is really a brilliant writer. Have you read his book "React" it's seriously life-changing…”

I don’t know the person who published the picture or the people who commented on it but there I was - on the internet - reading about a stranger’s impression of something I had written about two years ago.

Although that book was published in 2018 and is being sold in stores across North America and Europe, a part of me completely forgot that my work was no longer just an idea or an untitled Google Doc in a tab pinned to the top of my Chrome browser. Instead, it is a physical entity making impressions and impact on strangers.

Professional writing was never a career choice for me. Before I knew what career choices were, I was a young boy who simply enjoyed coming up with stories and acting them out with my toys. As a kid, there wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t using my toys as characters in a play and storyline that I made up. I was fascinated with making up and acting out stories.

As I got older, my free time started getting consumed by real-life commitments. I couldn’t spend all day playing with my toys anymore. My mother noticed my dilemma so she bought me a notebook.

She told me to write down the stories I came up with since I no longer had the time to act them out with toys. That’s how I got into creative writing but even then, it wasn’t a career choice. It was a hobby - and it remained a hobby until five years ago.

Five years ago, I was an undergraduate, at the University of Manitoba, studying biological sciences in my penultimate year of a 5-year degree program. As you can already guess, I was on track to being a biologist. In truth, I had plans to go even further than that and become a medical doctor. I had registered for my MCAT examination and was getting prepared to ace it.

Medicine was the plan until I walked into a morning lecture for one of my electives, Catholic Studies, and the professor asked to see me after the class. In the meeting that followed, he commended the essays I had written as part of the assignment requirements for that course, and subtly suggested that I consider pivoting to professional writing as a career choice.

Unbeknownst to him, that professor sowed a seed of thought in me with his comments. It might sound crazy to you but I had never considered professional writing as a realistic career choice for me until that moment. It was my hobby and that’s all it had ever been. Yet, I spent that day - and the weeks and months that followed - thinking, researching, and praying about the possibility and reality of switching careers.

Between that day and today, I have written three published novellas, 100+ news articles/essays, and countless communications and brand collaterals that have been read by tens of thousands of people.

Beyond the numbers - which aren’t crazy yet by the way - professional writing, a career choice that I never thought was an option, is turning out to be a purposeful journey for me.

In my opinion, at the core of it, a career should be purposeful.

I believe that God created everyone with unique gifts. As we journey through this earth, we are all called to contribute those gifts - in one way or another - to the lives and communities around us. The journey you take to making these contributions, while you may or may not be earning a living, is your career - and this journey should be purposeful.

A purposeful career is one that allows you to express the gifts God has given you in a way that is natural, authentic, and fulfilling. A purposeful career is not one job or one workplace or one task, it is the summation of the jobs, workplaces, and tasks that it takes for you to contribute the gifts God has given you. In some cases, it even includes the phases or seasons of education and unemployment that empower you for seasons of active work.

Medicine, as a practice, wouldn’t have been a purposeful journey for me. Before that meeting with my professor, I never fully considered why I was studying biology or preparing to go to medical school.

I had excelled in sciences in high school and biology/medicine seemed like the natural path for someone who was good in sciences. That was the rationale behind my pursuit of biology and medical degrees.

Writing, on the other hand, gives me an opportunity to make contributions in a way that I can truly express myself. As a child, I expressed myself through the stories I would come up with. As an adult, I am able to express myself by writing stories that educate, engage, and entertain people far and near - including strangers on Instagram.

Because I write, I have engaged people in conversations about important social issues. Because I write, I have partnered with non-profit organizations - like the Canadian Women’s Foundation, BC Women Health Foundation amongst others - to raise awareness about mental health care and gender-based violence as well as donations to fight these issues.

Because I write, I have supported the work of brands and businesses I believe in. Because I write, I can encourage you today to rethink your definition of a career and, before you make another move, make sure the career path/journey you’re on is filled with purpose.

Why do you do what you do?

Tobi Nifesi is a copywriter and journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of three psychological thriller novellas that explore the lines between sociology and psychosis.

His novellas have been used to inform international social awareness campaigns and as case studies for conversations about domestic violence, endometriosis, suicide and bystander apathy.