Lauren Sabetta

I really attribute my success to the support I had from friends and my wonderful daughter. I had a lot of people around me who were like, 'You've got this, you can do it,' even when there were also people who thought I was out of my mind for going back to school as a single mom. My daughter never thought it was crazy. She was supportive throughout the whole process, and I think she's proud of me for doing it. Having that encouragement from the people who believed in me really helped me keep going, especially during those times when I was doubting myself and wondering what I was doing.

The best career advice I received came from my professor at Georgia State University, who was around my age and was pursuing her doctorate while teaching. She really just told me straight: 'You've got this. You can do this. Put yourself out there.' She was very encouraging, especially when I was dealing with imposter syndrome as an older student and single mom, wondering what I was doing. She kept telling me I could do it and helped me see that it's never really an issue of age or your circumstances. You can constantly develop and keep going. She wrote me many letters of recommendation and was really part of helping me to just keep going. Her message was clear: you can constantly advance and keep going, and it's just never really an issue of age or your circumstances.

My advice is to not give up on your dreams or your goals. Know that they're attainable. I think a lot of women, especially, suffer from imposter syndrome. I know I did, and still do sometimes, though not as much anymore. You feel like, do I really deserve to call myself a journalist? That kind of negative self-talk is really common, I think, particularly with women. My best advice is don't let the negativity in your head stop you. Just keep going despite all the noise in your head, because I know everybody experiences that. Also, know your worth. There is still pay disparity in this field, but you deserve to be paid for what you contribute and what you do. Don't give up on yourself and remember that you're worth it.

The biggest challenge right now is that it's very difficult to become a paid writer. The media environment is constantly changing. When I went back to school, everything was transitioning to digital, and I had to learn a lot to function in that environment. Now it's constantly changing again with AI and other technologies. It's almost like needing a new phone every year or two - the profession is like that, constantly evolving. I'm a little bit terrified of AI, honestly, because there's a lot of disinformation and misinformation out there. As a trained writer and trained journalist, that concerns me. In this day and age, anyone can say they're a journalist, which is kind of scary. But I guess there's probably a lot of opportunity there too, even though the landscape is challenging. It's just not easy these days having a paying career as a journalist or writer.

Buddhism is really the foundation of my life and what keeps me grounded. I've been practicing Buddhism for 3 years now with the World Peace Organization, and I'm very involved in that. It's like how some people are very religious or very Christian - Buddhism is that for me. It's the core basis for my life. Within that practice, there's this never-give-up spirit that flows out into everything I do. It's about really pursuing what you want in life, becoming who you want to be, and attaining what you want. We're supposed to be happy in our life. When you're young, you're all gung-ho, and then life happens and it can be quite discouraging. But my Buddhist practice has really helped me to say, 'No, what is it that you want to do? Just do it.' That foundation of world peace, achieving enlightenment, and ending suffering is very important to me and guides everything I do.