Sometimes we’re lucky and we don’t get what we want.
My affinity for writing evinced itself when I was very young. I was writing poems, stories, even a play from the time I learned to spell C-A-T. Everyone cheered me on—family, teachers, family friends—and assured me I was going to be a writer when I grew up.
But that wasn’t what I wanted. Broadway beckoned—and not scripting plays but acting in them. Starring in them. I had my heart set on being an actress.
A health issue put the kibosh on my dreams of, as they sang in Showboat, “Life Upon the Wicked Stage.” It was not to be. In my junior year of high school, it became abundantly evident that I was not going to be able to follow my dream.
Ironically I didn’t fall back on a writing career right away. Although I continued writing for any publication that would allow me to see my words in print, including a stint doing what today would be called interning for the local weekly paper, I didn’t dare to dream of earning a living writing. I didn’t think I was good enough. And I didn’t have a Journalism degree. A writing career for me? Impossible.
I wouldn’t dream that big till later—much later.
In fact, it wasn’t until the early nineties that I dared try to get a book published—and succeeded—although I was writing (and selling) short-form stuff long before that.
And now? Now I have over 100 published books to my credit, I write for clients (anything from ads to promotional scripts to business reports to web copy—not to mention ghostwritten books), and I edit. I have edited books, magazines, business materials, and more.
And I totally love what I do. I feel blessed—blessed that I can earn a living doing work that I so much love. (Is it even right to call it “work” when I so much enjoy what I’m doing? If it’s labor, it’s a labor of love for sure!)
How fortunate I am that I didn’t get what I wanted. When my friend Rev. Glo prays for something, she always says, “That or something better.” That’s what I got: Something better. I didn’t get the career I wanted so long ago—but I got something far, far better.
And I’m eternally grateful.