August 11, 2010

When speaking to a representative from the publisher that worked with me last year, she asked if I wanted to pursue writing as a career. I said that if the path led me that way, that I certainly would consider it because I was about to finish a degree where obtaining a job would be highly competive and challenging. She guessed that I had a master's in psychology (close enough, mine is in education) and said that my writing had a counseling vibe to it.

I found this comical because I had others tell me my writing was like a step by step manual. This happens first, this happens second, and so forth. More than that, I found it funny because I saw them as two separate entities: be a school counselor or be a published writer. The paths were separate to me.

I thought about this today, when someone told me that on a completely unrelated topic from writing and counseling that I wouldn't succeed with what I wanted to do in this particular situation. (I am well aware that this sounds shady and illegal, I assure you it's not. It's just better to have the whole thing remain anonymous. They simply told me that I wouldn't succeed.) It ticked me off to be told 'no' to something when they clearly weren't giving me a fair chance. They tried tying my potential success to something totally unrelatable to the situation. It would be like trying to correlate how the smell of new carpet is great to how Jupiter's orbit, that's how ridiculous this situation was. It made me want to be a counselor and/or a successful novelist twice as much. I would love to go back to this person and say, "See, I can have my cake and eat it too! I'm a success."

Anyway, I really wanted to have my cake and eat it too today. It serves as motivation to carry on with my writing career even if I never publish another novel. More than that, I feel that I'm already successful and feel sorry for the individual who told me that I wouldn't do well where I was today.