When I was in elementary school, I attended a drama camp at our local recreation center and one of our projects was to give a “How to” presentation. For some reason, I chose wrapping a present, although it wasn’t something I regularly did and wasn’t particularly good at doing.

I don’t remember for sure, but it was probably a last-minute decision after I found some wrapping paper and tape around the house. I don’t even remember if I practiced beforehand because, hey, what could be so difficult about wrapping a present?

Since it was so long ago and I don’t have any video evidence, I don’t remember all the details, but only the mid-presentation realization that the wrapping paper wasn’t creasing neatly and when I taped it, there were bunched-up gaps in places. I plowed through, hoping nobody would notice and probably finished up with some kind of summarizing statement like, “And there you go, that’s how you wrap a present” because I was too young to make a joke about my ineptitude.

Fortunately, a few years later came the invention of the gift bag stuffed with tissue paper and although I’m still not that great at fluffing the tissue paper, it has passed muster at children’s birthday parties so far. 

As we approach the Jewish New Year, I’ve been thinking a great deal about my new freelance writing career and what direction I plan to go with it. At the essence of it is my writing, which is something I’ve done regularly for most of my life (starting in spiral notebook journals in junior high), so hopefully that’s a good place to start. But how do I wrap it? In magazines? In newspapers? In business copywriting materials?

Ideally, I’d like to continue what I was doing during my years at the newspaper – providing a community forum that shares the good work done by individuals, companies and organizations. (Sure, we covered a lot of other subjects, too, but these were my favorite assignments.) It was always incredible to see how one person’s idea was put into action and helped others and I want to continue sharing these stories.

Unlike my ill-fated present-wrapping demonstration, I feel like I am prepared to take this on and am trying to figure out the next steps. And for a little New Year’s message to everyone, I wish that we all find the best ways to wrap our “gifts” and present them to the world.