She wanted to be the first woman to play on a Major League Baseball team. When she was a girl, Leigh Goessl enjoyed some fantasies of being a landmark baseball player, but she admits that while that dream didn’t come true, she appreciates what she has today.
Goessl, living outside the Washington DC-Beltway in northern Virginia, is a joyful wife and parent, pursuing her interests with all the zeal of a long-time stringer. She balances family life and freelancing, and her work day can get erratic. She often has to handle parental duties while juggling several articles at once. Like any busy freelancer, she doesn’t know if Monday will resemble Tuesday. As a frequent writer for DigitalJournal.com, she says “I sometimes I know exactly what I want to write and have a plan of writing, but other times I seek inspiration.”
It looks like she doesn’t need too much inspiration. Since she joined Digital Journal in September 2011, Goessl has written more than 362 articles, showing her vast range of interests: from tech news to wildlife updates to photo essays of northern Virginia. As observers may note, there doesn’t seem to be a topic Goessl won’t tackle.
She does tend to focus on one sector of interest to her, she says in an interview. “I’m often inclined to write about business and tech issues, because I am fascinated and curious how innovation has changed the dynamics of society, particularly where privacy and security are concerned. Watching the two constantly at odds in this technology age is an eye-opener.”
Being a Digital Journalist is self-education, at the very least, she adds. “Writing on DJ I feel as if I’m growing and learning more about the news craft as I still feel new at it. There are a lot of terrific writers publishing on DJ and I enjoy the reading, and learn many different things than what I might see in MSM [mainstream media].”
Goessl first got hooked into writing when she dabbled in poetry and fiction writing as a child in New York state. When she went to SUNY colleges (State of New York) and later pursued an online MBA at Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University, the writing bug began to itch her. “I found myself energized when doing research and learning new things,” she recalls.
City life also invigorates Goessl. When she lived in the Hudson Valley between New York City and the Catskill mountains, she often headed into the city to spend a day in NYC exploring with her friends. “Traveling and seeing different places was always a passion, but since opportunity to travel was limited, I liked to explore the more immediate surroundings,” she says.
Not that she doesn’t find value in her current life near Washington. She says, “I love the diversity and the sense of community as this area is very family and community oriented. There is also so much to see and do here, I’ve been here almost 6 years and often still feel ‘touristy’.”
Goessl has worked as a civil servant, mainly in office positions, and had fun working in the field of higher education, too. Something didn’t feel right, though, and she went back to college after a 10-year absence, learning about information security and graduating two years ago. Her degree gave rise to some soul-searching, as Goessl describes, and the journey continues.
“At this point I’m considering and open to different ideas and honestly haven’t yet figured it out,” she says.
For more Digital Journalist profiles, go here (Samuel Okocha) and here (Lynn Herrmann)
