We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tracy McHugh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tracy below.

Hi Tracy, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

Something I believe our education systems could do better is preparing students for life and gearing to the child’s strength from a younger age. When I was coming up through K-12, I am sure there were vocational schools but it wasn’t really an option discussed, most kids just went to their public high school. I remember there were home-ec and wood shop classes and then there were more traditional academics such as math, history, science and English, but there weren’t classes on many necessities in adulthood that aren’t as easy to grasp. For instance, there were several math courses such as Algebra, Statistics, Calculus, and Geometry but what about a class to teach students about 401ks, savings, budgeting, interest rates on bank accounts, and investing for the average person. I didn’t learn about compounding until way later than I want to admit. When I was starting out professionally, all I knew was I wasn’t making a lot of money so I pushed off learning about investing and putting money towards my 401k until a point when I was making more money. But even if I put away $50 every pay period for 15 years, who knows what kind of earning potential that investment would have had.

Also, I went to a liberal arts college and my high school experience was very much the same so I was taking several maths, sciences, histories, and English courses. It was evident from pretty early on that I didn’t have an aptitude for the math and science courses. I think my high school might have modified this after I left to let kids have more of a focus in addition to a few foundation courses, but when I was going to school I wasted so much time on these classes that have played no part in my adult life. Since doing poorly in Geometry my Sophomore year of high school, I have not used it in my adult life. I always loved my writing and English courses and excelled in it. If only I had that structure and guidance in place to have mentors pointing me in that direction and the ability to take additional writing courses, I may have gotten into writing a lot sooner.

Lastly, I think we are doing a bit better at this now than when I was in school but teaching kids languages from a younger age. I didn’t start studying a second language until I was in high school. Little kids are like sponges and there is definitely benefit to implementing that at a younger age.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I never knew how to condense over 3 decades into a few lines, but here it goes. I grew up in a small town in North Jersey, just outside of NYC. I say this to set the tone as Broadway was a big part of my life growing up. Unfortunately, I don’t have a singing or dancing bone in my body but I am a regular patron of the theater and minored in theater in college. My shining moment on the small state was as a tree stump in my college production of A Midsummer Nights Dream.

I was pretty lost after college, I traveled around a bit and moved around a bit before it wasn’t cute anymore and did the one thing I never thought I would do: get a job in corporate America. This was a bit before Digital Nomads and Content Creators were known professions. I kept at that corporate life until the pandemic, when like many, I reassessed what I was doing and what I really wanted. Trying to fill the isolation with something positive as well as missing travel, I started a travel blog. When the world started opening back up, it was somewhat back to reality and for the next three years I ebbed and flowed with posting to my blog and social media. In the beginning of 2023, I reassessed again when realizing the corporate life still wasn’t fulfilling me but how much I really did love writing. So, I revamped my website and content, started collaborating with other bloggers, and even have done a few interviews such as this, and was featured on a podcast. While I still work full-time, now I ensure I carve out time for my writing and creative side.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Three lessons I have learned the hard way:

1) It is never too late to start. Many times I find myself thinking, I wish I took up writing and blogging a lot earlier because I would have been a lot further along in the process. I then try to remind myself that JK Rowling didn’t publish Harry Potter until she was 32 and before that she was very much down on her luck. Morgan Freeman’s big break in Street Smart, didn’t come until he was 49. There’s no timeframe or blueprint for change and success. Just start and put your best effort forth.

2) I used to have the mind frame that if I wasn’t perfect or at least great at something, why bother. This kept me out of sports, clubs, and classes when I was younger. Some people are natural born stars but for the most part that’s why many people join activities – to grow, learn, and improve. You don’t need to be perfect to start. When I started blogging I had no idea how to put together a website or how best to structure a blog, so I just started and over the next 3 years I improved and went back to enhance old content and the website.

3) There is a commencement speech Jim Carrey did several years ago where he spoke about how funny his dad was. He said his dad had the potential to be a great comedian but he had a family so he got a job as an accountant. His dad wound up losing his job and the whole family had to do whatever they had to do to get by. Jim Carrey said a line in this speech that always stuck with me: you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well try what you love.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The two things that pop out to me is the people I’ve met through writing via classes, writing groups, etc. who have been some of the most supportive, funniest and smartest people I have ever met.

Also, experiencing the unexpected. When I started my blog it was initially to serve a purpose. It was during the height of the pandemic and I needed to fill my time with something positive and productive, also I missed traveling so reminiscing about my travels made sense. It has ebbed and flowed over the last 3 years but it has lead me to writing some posts for awesome publications such as this one, recording a podcast, and collaborating on blog posts with some fellow bloggers I’ve met along the way.

Writing is also unexpected, you may have an outline in your mind but until you put the pen to the page (or fingers to the keyboard in my case) you don’t know exactly what will come out. That is what initially drew me to creative writing with some friends. With blogs, you most likely know the topic and general idea of the post but with prompted writing, it truly is left up to ‘fate’. Some of the pieces turn out great and can be expanded into something bigger, while others are works in progress.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chasingwonderful.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chasingw0nderful/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chasingw0nderful
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-joy/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TracyMcHugh/videos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=B38hvOkejRRTl60OAg9XVQ