This upcoming June will mark fourteen years since I graduated high school (that loud bang you heard, yeah, that was my jaw hitting the floor!) and since I left the sleepy little Vancouver Island town I grew up in. Like many of the graduates of Lake Cowichan Secondary, I returned for a brief stint (two of them, actually) before realizing there was something bigger that I needed to do, somewhere else I needed to be.
I took the long way ‘round to ultimately end up exactly where I started with the very goal I set out with. My parents were always cautious about my intention of being a writer – you know, that whole starving artist thing and all – and, offered up a handful of other possible careers (all of which were great options, just not for me) in an attempt to lure my attention away with something shiny (like, coins… and the beautiful shoes that could be purchased with coins!).
I wavered a little… which gave way to doubt… which gave way to thinking I could write solely as an on-the-side activity. So, I treated it as such and rarely wrote beyond silly emails and quirky stories involving close friends. An entire decade dissolved leaving nothing more than trace memories with little to show in terms of work produced. When I look back now, I get why that was, I understand why it sat so long simmering on the back burner – if I didn’t acknowledge it, I wouldn’t miss it as much. If I didn’t miss it as much, I wouldn’t realize that that there was a gigantic part of me that felt lost. And, was lost.
I’m not exactly sure when the light came on, when I had that ‘Aha!’ moment that Oprah speaks of in nearly every episode, but somewhere along the way it happened. Somewhere along the way I found my way back to me. I realized that regardless of which path I followed, I was likely going to starve – either literally or figuratively. I picked up my pen and paper (or rather, opened my laptop) and began rapidly writing (or rather, hammering away on the keys)… only to discover how different my voice is now from back then… When exactly did that happen?
The first full year (last year) was painful and oddly enough, I was somewhat prepared for that. Though contracts were landed (to my surprise) and I started to establish a rhythm, I wondered if it would ever move beyond that, if I would ever establish my name. Then, when I started to waver a little once again, a photographer friend of mine said something that I put trust in: When you least expect it, things are going to gain speed and snowball in the best way. Hmmm… maybe so!
Two weeks later, I had landed a freelance position on a magazine (in addition to the one I landed on another magazine two weeks prior to that) and a scheduled interview with Victoria Banks…
Yesterday was the interview… and, the timid little Lake Cowichan girl nailed it! Next stop: Coins… and the beautiful shoes that can be purchased with coins!
Kristal Burgess and I took to the hills this afternoon for a photo-shoot (complete with vintage typewriter and a scattering of old, slightly yellowed pictures throughout the wispy tall grass). The sun was golden warm, spliced by wind, and the earthy background was perfect for the theme.