Why do I write? I just didn’t wake up one morning and decide to write. I’ve always loved to write ever since I was a little girl, but I also loved to do a lot of other things too – I always loved to draw, create things, fix things, tell jokes, listen to music, cook and dance. Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what you should do in your life. So, while I was trying to figure out what to do in life, I saved things. I saved stories I wrote and pictures I drew as a child. I saved all the watercolors and acrylic paintings I created in high school. I wrote in a journal for years and then discarded things I wrote for fear or shame that no one would care what I wrote let alone that I wrote it. When I was a young girl, I watched reruns of the series called “The Walton’s” and envied the oldest child named John-Boy, played by actor Richard Thomas. John-Boy wrote secretly and hid the pages of his book under his mattress. I did the same thing.

When I was in college, I was told I had to pick a major course of study. I had no idea what I wanted to specialize in. At first I picked something that I was least interested in: Accounting. However, there was a silver lining. Majoring in Accounting meant you had to be in the school of business, and one required class was Fortran programming. I learned programming and flowcharting and became fascinated with computers. So, I decided that computers would be my career. I always loved computers, and I still do, but the writing thing was always there. Flash forward 20 years – as an Instructional Designer and eLearning Developer, I wrote educational content and designed and developed online learning over the years, but the author in me was always there. So I decided to take a leap of faith and begin my author journey. Over 10 years ago, in my spare time, I started writing online articles, and then short stories. In 2014, I had 2 short stories published in a real book and then I was hooked. I knew then that it was time to move further along my journey doing what I loved.

What do we do when we discover we enjoy something? We all have things we love to do, and sometimes we find ways to incorporate it into daily life. Maybe you love to cook and secretly wish you could have your own cooking show with a bestselling cookbook, but instead life got in the way, so you cook for your family and stop there. Maybe you love science fiction or mystery suspense, and you have pages and pages of short mysteries you have written and you secretly wish you can write a mystery or science-fiction series; but instead you read thrillers and mystery books and watch detective shows on TV and keep saying “I could have written that!”. Maybe you doodle all the time and absolutely love to draw – and every time you go to a bookstore, you imagine a children’s picture book that you wrote and illustrated.

It’s ok to dream, and it’s ok to imagine. It’s also more than ok to chase your dreams and achieve them. Isn’t that the point of life?

What is your dream? If you’re not living your dream, write it down right now on a piece of paper or index card and look at it everyday. Believe. Learn how to make it happen. Take the first step. Climb all the steps you need to climb to make your dream a reality!