What is success? To me, true success takes us to inner happiness.

Writing was always my passion, but for many years, not a career. The turning point was 1993, when to ground myself as my best friend was dying from cancer, I wrote about our friendship helping us through it. She made me promise to get it published to help other people. I kept that promise, getting my first check for that article in 1995. Maybe I was a writer. Yet even after more published articles, I didn’t “feel” like a writer.

That changed in 1997 when I met the News Editor of the now defunct Staten Island Register newspaper. From a “wannabe,” I became a professional writer, producing hundreds of articles for the newspaper, and writing for anthologies, online sites, and magazines. I had a career I loved.

In 2005, however, health problems sucked all the energy out of me. The initial diagnosis was hypothyroidism. With medicine, I’d quickly be back to me. When that didn’t happen, tests found two thyroid nodules. A subsequent biopsy found no cancer, but finally gave my condition a name: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Diabetes followed, along with a need to wear uncomfortable and scratchy diabetic socks for men. This autoimmune double barrel is what the medical profession calls Schmidt’s Syndrome.

Scary, but at least I finally knew what was wrong. Naming it gave me power. My Register-developed research skills had me learning everything I could, working with the doctor for proper medicine combinations, and undertaking a lifestyle change.

Rather than fight the idea of a life-long autoimmune disease, I accepted it for what it is. Compromises may be necessary, but no disease was going to beat me! When I achieved balance in medication, diet, exercise, sleep, and life in general, the energy improved. Even on flare-up days, I can write.

I once again taste that sweet inner peace from writing!

Angie Mangino, a former investigative reporter for the Staten Island Register weekly newspaper, is a freelance writer who has been providing quality service to editors since 1995. Publications online and in print include articles on a variety of subjects, essays, and book reviews. Her website (https://www.angiemangino.com) has her full writing resume, and contains book reviews she wrote as well as excerpts of biographical essays on people from Tottenville, the subject of her work-in-progress book. She networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and is always open to meeting other writers, firmly believing writers have so much to learn from and to share with each other.

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THE DO-IT-YOURSELFER’S GUIDE TO SELF-SYNDICATION
A practical resource outlining the self-syndication process, step-by-step. Packed with detailed information and useful tips for writers looking to gain readership, name recognition, publication and self-syndication for their column or articles.