Today we’d like to introduce you to Lia Seirotti.
Lia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I graduated from Florida International University in 2010 with a degree in Education and have subsequently worked teaching students from all walks of life and varying ages.
During my third year of teaching in Allapattah, I began teaching writing to fourth graders. At the time, only 25% of my students were projected to pass their state writing exams. The more I worked with them, the more I kept insisting to my students that their voice was important and that they had to write because their stories deserved to be told. Eventually, my students, who were very astute, asked me why I wasn’t a writer and I didn’t have an answer for them.
That year, more than 60% of my students scored a passing grade on their writing exams and together, we all learned that writing is valuable and that our stories need to be heard. My students were right, I had always wanted to be a writer but I hadn’t written anything in almost a decade. So, I began blogging under the pen name “A Girl in Her Thirties” the following year.
Today, four years later, I no longer write under a pseudonym but I continue writing about the things that I think are important. Whether I’m sharing about what’s going on in my community or personal vignettes, I continue cultivating my craft. I’m still a teacher. In fact, I went on to become certified to teach English through high school. However, now not only has my writing platform changed but my classroom setting has changed as well.
See, even when I taught in a school, I never wanted to be confined to the classroom. At times, I would take my students outside and sit under a tree for our reading discussions. Now, I am a virtual high school teacher and my students live in Europe. My classroom has no physical borders. And all we need is a good internet connection to feel connected.
I am passionate about teaching, writing, and social media and hope to continue to, through these channels, inspire my students and anyone else who reads me.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The politics of the education system in Florida itself is not easy; neither is discovering that you’re equally passionate about an unrelated career. So, at times, I struggled with many of the things educators are consistently dissatisfied with in this country. It’s also been difficult at times to navigate Miami’s writing scene and I struggle with believing that I have to prove myself as a writer without formal education after coming into it quite late in life.
Still, my biggest struggle has always been maintaining a balance between the two. I want to inspire my students through my example. When I tell them that writing can be cathartic and healing and that they have a responsibility to honor their stories, I want to be able to speak with the authority of someone who’s living that and believes it to be true. I find that often because I am so passionate about both careers, there are times where one overpowers the other. And I have to constantly work nurturing both passions while maintaining a healthy work/life balance.
What else should our readers know?
I’ve been published on the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Calle Ocho News, The Mighty, Coral Gables Love and I’ve also appeared on a couple of episodes of Writing Class Radio.
One of my favorites projects was “Little Havana Me Importa” with the National Trust. I worked as the sole writer on a team of locals to create an interactive museum profiling the lives of ten subjects through a series of interviews which then became a bilingual interactive museum exhibit in Little Havana.
As a teacher, I’ve always worked for schools managed by Academica, “one of the nation’s longest-serving and most successful education service organizations” and am about to begin my ninth year of teaching.
I think my duality is what sets me apart. I am an educator and writer who is passionate about telling stories. Through my writing (whether it’s in class, in an Instagram caption, or published online somewhere), I inspire others to love themselves and feel they have the courage and freedom to be authentic. Readers and students love how I tell my stories, share my flaws, and take them along on adventures through my writing.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I do not believe success is all-encompassing. Meaning, I believe a person can be successful in their career and not successful in their relationships, for example. I imagine that for everyone it’s different in that they define their success by what’s most important to them.
For me, personally, my spirituality has always been the largest marker for success. I wrote about a time that would have been considered one of the “best” years of my careers in terms of the work I was able to produce and the way my students scored on their standardized tests. It was even the year my colleagues nominated me for Teacher of the Year. On paper, anyone would have said I was “successful.” However, my mental health was deteriorating and I didn’t feel spiritually healthy. I had to take a step back and decide what were the steps I needed to take to remediate that. And I constantly try to gauge my success that way. Because I find that spiritual fulfillment is the ultimate indicator of a truly successful existence.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.liaseirotti.com/lia-writes
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liaseirotti/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/liaseirotti
Image Credit:
(Confetti photo only) Forever Pixels Photography | @foreverpixels
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