Last week we hosted some out-of-town guests. Only, unlike most of our guests, they weren't here to see the Statue of Liberty or take in a Broadway show or two.
My husband's cousin's child, Michaela Paige, was here spending time with Sony Studios in hopes of getting a contract with them. She's only fifteen but has been performing and promoting herself since she was eight. This time spent at Sony is the culmination of seven years of work.
She reminded me of my younger years as a singer. I even started as a voice major at Indiana University, but my dreams were never so lofty, and I never had the drive to put myself out there as a singer. In the end, singing in my friends' weddings was satisfying enough.
Unlike writing.
I've been writing novels for about the same length of time Michaela has been singing, and I knew from the first paragraph of my first novel that I would keep writing and promoting myself until I got published. Sure, there've been setbacks and heartaches, some caused by bad timing or others' decisions and some of my own making, but there's a hunger deep in me that I never felt with my singing. One that keeps me writing and pushing myself year after year.
What About You? Any dreams you let go of? How does writing feel different, or the same?
It must be something about writing because I've had similar experiences. I was big fish in small pond when it came to dancing, but auditioning at Hershey Park humbled me enough to silence that dream. But I'm not ready to be silenced yet with writing.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to be a writer when I was younger and I let go of that dream for a while, but now I'm back at it.
ReplyDeleteI dreamed of med school once upon a time--and then other interests got in the way in college. (Organic chemistry, um, also got in the way.) It was easy to let that dream go when the time came. I can't imagine doing the same with writing--I'm in it for the long haul.
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