"Follow Your Bliss"
When I was ten years old, my teacher, Mrs. Mahar, assigned a project: write a one page short story. This one page short story turned into a five chapter book, written on 8.5x11 lined paper, and each chapter had two to three pages. She was so impressed, we entered the story into a school and district contest where it won first place. I remember thinking, "Wow, I really like this. Maybe I could do something with this whole writing thing."
From that time on, my mind has never stopped dreaming of words. However, as a girl turns into a woman, and life gets real, dreams can fade. Somewhere your childhood dreams drift away; they get pushed to the side; they get shuffled to the back. You may start to think, "That writing thing will never happen. Why bother?"
Dreams are funny. If it is a really good dream, it comes back. It finds its way back to you. It won't let you go. We brush the dust off the stack of lost ambitions and reexamine them.
There is a saying: follow your bliss. Joseph Campbell, one of my favorite authors, said the following:
"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time."
My love for writing isn't about going pro, it's about following my bliss. I record the memories of my family; I share my musings; I write the story of my life. I'm the "story writer."
Welcome to my little spot in the world where you'll find me following my bliss.