When Past Struggles Become Future Successes

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at an assisted living center. Not only did I have a great time, I learned something about myself and it was this:

A struggle in the past doesn't have to limit me in the future.

When I was in the fourth grade I received a particularly poor report card. In English writing I received a spectacular C- and in speaking I received a C.

For years I looked on this report card, as well as others that came after, as some sort of future expression of my future. Of course, I wanted to become a writer but these numbers fooled me into thinking that becoming a writer was nigh to impossible.

When I married in 1980, I still had this thought of never being able to become a writer inside of me. I thought, teachers must know what they're talking about. I'd better choose something else as my dream career.

Do you have a writing barrier in your life?  Photo by: BinaryApe, courtesy of Flickr

But nothing really set in...

Until the day I finally sat down to write. It was so FREEING! I felt as if I could do anything after writing that first story about the joys and qualms of being pregnant. Notice I didn't say the writing was GOOD. It was anything but good, but I was writing.

It took seven years after that first writing exercise to finally get into print. And another 15 years after that to get my first book published.

But I had done it! Despite all the negative forces pulling against me, I knew my dream would be fulfilled.

And it continues to fill me.