Kelly Branyik

🤓 Kelly's Job Experience—Told in extra short autobiographical form 📚

“Oh! You’re going to school for English! Does that mean you’ll be a teacher someday?”

I lower my head at the question. Everyone assumed I would be a teacher and not the epic novelist or journalist I had dreamed. Teaching isn't a bad job, it was just the same question for English majors like me before I worked for 10 years to become a content writer at Semrush.

“Will you be a teacher someday?” Asks the one millionth person in my lifetime.

My repetitive response was always, “No… I'm going to be a writer.” That response lasted until I graduated from college, became a Peace Corps Volunteer and moved to China to teach Oral English for two years.

Funny how life works sometimes.

For years before I graduated, people told me having a career as a writer wasn’t practical. As a natural born creative, it was no surprise when I pursued writing despite what the world told me. Prior to Peace Corps, I launched my writing career by contributing my young writing skills to a local publication. And from there it was only a gorgeous climb upward.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, my skills as a writer grew. I was traveling and blogging, sharing my real-life stories on culture, food, and the experience as an American living in country wholly different than my own. And even though the world changed around me (and deeply changed me from within), one thing always remained constant—my love for writing.

After returning from China, I became a content writer, digital marketer, and went on to publish articles in over a half-dozen online and print publications, some of which I have been rewarded and awarded for. And then there were my two books—a debut sci-fi novel and a Peace Corps hand guide—which I somehow managed to publish while working full-time jobs in digital marketing. Those two accomplishments are my pride and joy. There is also more where those came from.

My dream is to inspire people through storytelling, even if it’s just one person, whether that be in content marketing or creative writing. I want to share my big, vulnerable, and loving heart with as many people as possible. So I use words to create stories in all forms.

That dream is still true today.

As of late, I am continuously honing my craft as a content writer and working on the first book in my second series. You'll always find me writing—big shock there—reading books, uplifting authors through book reviews, sipping tea near rainy window panes, sharing my big ol’ heart, and continuously falling in love with writing.