When someone offers you $1.5 million over three years, you take it, right? What if you had to write a 52-page proposal in exchange for it? Still a good trade. This is why I love grant writing.

Since the fall, I have been working with a team at the school putting together a Physical Education Program grant. We finished it on Friday, after at least 300 hours of cumulative work doing research, administering surveys to students, and meeting with partners. This is the downside of grant writing: you can spend hundreds of hours fine-tuning your dream and there is no guarantee that it will come true. But what is life without dreams?

Plus, I know we will get this one – I have a good feeling about it and I know it was a really good proposal. Three nights this week I worked until everyone else had left the office building. It was just me, stacks of rough drafts massacred by red pen, post-its lining the periphery of my computer screen, and the sound of my keyboard clicking under my fingers. Word by word I crafted a 25 page proposal (52 pages including attachments) and I felt great. I would leave the office, after a 12 hour day of sitting in front of the computer, full of energy and be reminded how much I love to write. It is a gift to be able to take abstract ideas and write down a comprehensive plan for why and how they should be accomplished.

Today, I am grateful to be a grant writer for a living.