Well, there's no better time to get serious about writing than right now. I just heard this female writer speak at Cal State Fullerton's creative writing night. She was pretty amazing; she read a post from her blog that made me tear up a little (http://lizapalmer.com/be-prepared/). Here's the bit she read that I found particularly moving, although maybe it's cheesy if you haven't heard her lead up to it:
"That’s the thing with dreams – and I’d know, I ran from mine for decades – the most dangerous thing you can do is actually admit how important they are to you. How much you CARE. That it’s not silly and or some weird hobby – that it’s actually where you’re most yourself, so much so that it scares you a little. (maybe a lot)"
Admitting you have a dream (gosh, it sounds so corny that I want to say "goal" instead) is scary. In our postmodern (or post-postmodern?) age of cynicism, it's so easy to scoff at bold optimism. I know--I'm guilty of doing it all the time. It's much easier to sit on the sidelines and smirk than to admit we want something, try for it, and possibly fail.
On creative writing night, I also heard a male writer read a couple of his short stories. The stories were so good that I bought his book (http://www.benloory.com/stories_for_nighttime). This man had read his stories for This American Life, and if you know me, you know that I looove NPR. My fiance and I are those nerdy types that listen during the day and discuss what we heard while we're making dinner. "Did you hear that story on Marketplace about first-borns?" "Did you hear the one about the sriracha plant?" We even sometimes play a super nerdy game that we call "Name that Foreign Correspondent."
Anyway, after hearing that man read, I decided that my dream is to one day read one of my stories on NPR. It doesn't even have to be on This American Life. I'd settle for Snap Judgment. My friend Caitlin, who may well be my only reader (but that's okay since this is preparation), has a dream to one day give a Ted Talk. I think that's an amazing goal, and we might be pie-in-the-sky sort of people...but who cares? A pie is a great target to aim for!
