In the fall semester of my senior year in college I was sitting in the office for the peer education group that I was a member of. I was making phone calls about an upcoming retreat and adding items to an already lengthy to do list for the day. I felt completely overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility that came with the leadership role I had taken on. In that moment, balancing this with my academics felt impossible. It was the same moment that I had the fleeting thought, If I was planning this activity because it was my job, I think I might actually like it.
Eight years later I applied to graduate school to earn the credentials that would allow me to work in an office on a college campus, educating students.
So why eight years? If I knew that afternoon.
It wasn’t time.
I didn’t even remember that specific moment until I started graduate school. That thought about I think I would like this, was fleeting. It got hidden under all the other plans I had. Plans to not engage in formal education any longer. To take a break from the last 16 years. To travel a bit. To get an apartment.
Hidden, not lost. It was always there, just waiting to be heard when the time was right.
My latest writing project is a novella in which the main character deals with these very concepts: rules and timing and the journey to what we always knew to begin with. I can’t wait to share more details about it here as they develop!
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I understand these feelings very well, actually. I fully believe this is how I ended up writing. The feeling was always there, but I was too busy chasing what I wanted in that moment. I love the fortune cookie photograph; that’s truly a beautiful quote.
Yes! I could have written the same thing about writing, too. I always knew I wanted to do something creative but I drifted around through lots of things before I settled into writing. I had really been “writing” stories in my head since I was little. Thanks for reading!