We were lucky to catch up with Megan Harris M. recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

A few years after becoming a single mother, I found employment at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Because I was raising my oldest by myself, my coworkers advised me to become a nurse. I loved what I did for my patients, so I started school so I could take my nursing prerequisites to get into the nursing program.

I had always been a creator, though. Writing, drawing, and designing were my whole life– I had goals of pursuing art after graduating high school. But I had suddenly given up on my art, figuring it wasn’t the most practical thing to do as a single mom. I continued taking my nursing prereqs, but I also began studying several English courses beyond the basic coursework for the general education requirement. While trying to convince myself nursing was what I needed to do, I was having a hard time letting go of who I once was before I began working at the hospital, feeling extreme regret at having let go of my visual art.

So I took my first risk two years after I began my academic journey and switched out my nursing major for English. While I loved helping people, I knew I was being pulled into assisting others another way. In 2012, I obtained my Associate’s in English and moved on to attain my Bachelor’s in English Literature in 2015.

I continued to work at the hospital while coworkers and friends repeatedly asked me what I was going to do with an English degree. I would smile, hunch my shoulders, and tell them, “I don’t know yet.” But I was grateful for my job at the hospital and the ability to work around my children’s schedules (I had four by the time I received my bachelor’s) while attending school part-time. By the time I began a master’s program in 2016, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my English degrees(s).

When I finally received a master’s in English/Creative Writing in 2019, I finally had the skill, experience, and focus to begin my writing and teaching career. It was a slow crawl for the next couple of years, as I was still taking care of children (I had five by this time), working at the hospital, and honing my writing craft. I was publishing short essays here and there, and was close to finishing my debut memoir. I had also picked up a second job teaching English online as an adjunct professor. But I knew I still wasn’t done getting my education. I wanted to position myself to share my experiences with others through teaching and writing, and felt it was my responsibility to learn as much as I could about literature and writing. So I took my next risk— I resigned from the hospital in 2022, after almost 19 years of caring for cancer patients, to embark on my PhD program. I was going through a divorce at the time, living paycheck to paycheck, and now a ‘second-time’ single mom after an eight-year marriage.

But almost three years later, here I am: a third-year PhD student at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD, studying to take my comprehensive exams soon. My memoir, Not You, was published May 2024, and I have been teaching English Composition steadily for the last three years. I’ve even been able to teach some creative writing courses here and there since the publication of my book. While I cried when I said goodbye to Georgetown and its patients for the last time, I knew it was finally time to begin my new chapter, and I have never looked back since.

Megan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I was 19, I gave birth to my first child. I had been abandoned by the father of my child and was living in a maternity home for homeless, pregnant women. Growing up, I wasn’t my biggest fan— I didn’t like myself very much. So I settled for a lot less than what I deserved, allowing myself to get pregnant by someone I barely knew, then finding myself in one abusive relationship after another, even after I had my son. Due to undiagnosed mental illness and a challenging childhood, my worst fear was being alone because that further perpetuated the rejection I had become used to, leading me to continue believing I was a nobody if I didn’t have someone by my side. So I remained in abusive relationships because doing so was better than being by myself.

However, things started to take a slight turn after I had been in college for a few years. I had begun my higher education journey when my first child was six, and by the time I had finished my Associate’s degree, my self-esteem was a little higher, especially since I was also working full-time and taking care of business. By the time I began school to study for my Bachelor’s, I decided that I needed to work extra hard to let go of destructive habits and to seek help where I needed in order to learn how to value myself and form healthier relationships.

So I became more serious about my writing, while also turning my attention to learning how to teach college English. After obtaining my Master’s in English/Creative Writing, I realized that all I wanted to do was share my experiences through teaching and writing so I could give back to the community by sharing my testimony of the several lessons I’ve learned through all my notorious “adventures.” My overall message to younger women is: if you haven’t done what I’ve done, DON’T. But if you have, it’s okay! Just know that you have the responsibility and the ability to pull through it, for the sake of yourself and your children. This is why I wrote Not You— as a means to write through my shame and to let others know that there can always be a light at the end of one’s tunnel, if you just trudge on just a little while longer ’til you get to the finish line.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My side hustle did end up turning into one of my main careers. As stated before, I worked at MedStar Georgetown Hospital for almost 19 years, caring for bone marrow transplant patients. I was able to take care of my family while devoting time to finishing school. It was extremely rough because by the time I began my master’s program, I was the mother of five children. I was home with my kids during the week and worked 12-hour shifts during the weekends. Then, I’d attend school online. Every weekend, I’d bring my homework to the hospital with me and work on it during breaks. Sometimes, I’d stay at work after my shift ended to complete my school work before having to face all the happy chaos that comes with being a parent to multiple children.

When I finished my master’s, I ended up teaching college English part-time, while still working my weekends at the hospital. But by this time, I was working for Georgetown only part-time so I could focus more on teaching and writing. By 2022, my teaching and writing began to overtake my time at the hospital, gaining steady traction as I gained more experience and skill with both. Finally, in August 2022…after taking care of hundreds of my beloved cancer patients… I was free to resign from the place that watched me grow from my early 20’s into my early 40’s. For a little over two years, my “side hustle” has been my main gig.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

There have been times when I’ve spoken to non-creatives about my creative journey and I’ve had to remind myself that not everyone is going to understand my path— and there’s nothing wrong with that! Our individual destinies are not always meant to be understood by the majority, and at the end of the day, that’s okay. If Hollywood’s best actors and actresses decided to give up on their “non-creative” dreams, the world would be left without amazing entertainment. If all of our artists and musicians decided their dreams were “too big” to have, we’d be left without their beautiful images and moving sounds. We have all been endowed with certain talents and skills— whether they are “creative” or “non-creative”— and when the universe gifts us with these it is our responsibility to see them through to the end. If my creative predecessors could do it, who’s to say I can’t also?

I always tell my children they can be whatever they want in life, as long as they are able to support themselves along the way. It was a slow crawl for me— financially caring for myself and my children with my “practical” work at the hospital while continuously feeding my dream of becoming an author, on the side. At one point, I was wearing so many hats as I juggled multiple responsibilities and personas. But it was exhilarating knowing that I was able to remain on my journey and pay the bills at the same time. Sure, there were times along the way that I wished I was more of a “practical” human being, complete with one or two identity crises here and there as I struggled to reconcile the “real” world with my creative desires. But eventually I got to a point where I realized we can’t all be the same and that our uniqueness and differences are what makes the world continue to turn.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meganhmwrites.com
• Instagram: Meganhm.writes
• Facebook: Megan Harris-m
• Linkedin: Megan (Madramootoo) Harris M.