Don't Give Up on Yourself

     AB's post got me thinking about my life too, and what I've always wanted to do with my future, which is, just like her, to be a writer. I remember when I was about 9 or 10 and I asked my mother if she thought I had a chance of becoming a published author and she said "Well, I've never read any of your stories, but I think you'll get published simply because of your willpower." I thought about that, and I was satisfied with it because I think very highly of my mother, and even though it wasn't really the answer I was looking for, I still accepted it and thought it was a worthwhile idea. Then a few years later, I finished my first anthology of short stories, and I gave it to her to read. I was scared shitless, let me tell you ((pardon my french)) because I'd never really given my Mom much of my work to read before, and I would see that notebook sitting on the arm of her chair and I would think "What story has she just finished? Does she like them, does she think I'm a terrible person for some of the ideas that go through my head? Should I really have written the things I did?"
     After about a week or so, my Mom came into my room and handed me the notebook of short stories, and she said to me "I never knew it before. I knew that you loved writing, and I knew that you were determined to be published, so I thought you would be published even if your writing wasn't any good. But now I know that you will be published not just because of determination, but because you can really write." I think that's the highest praise my mother has ever given me, and I think about that all the time.

This would make a wonderful writing studio!!!

     I've entered more than my fair share of writing contests over the years, and I've never won a single one. I can't deny that this does upset me a little bit--how can it not? I try and share with people the thing I love the most in the whole wide world, and they don't understand it, or they don't think it's good enough, or they just don't want to accept it. That doesn't feel good, and I don't think there's any possible way to not be affected by something like that. But at the end of the day, who would I be to stop trying? I don't write my stories so that everyone can look on them with fondness and say "That was really good", because that's so bland and unrewarding. I write for myself, because I love it, and I'm happy when people do like my words, but I don't give up when they don't.
     I may never be published. My Mom's prophesies may go unfulfilled, because willpower and born talent are sometimes not enough. But what I do know is whether I get my work published or whether my work sits in a box under my bed for years without seeing the light of day, I'm already a writer, and I always will be a writer. The definition of a writer is not someone who has their stories published. The definition of a writer is simply someone who writes, and that's what I'll do until the day I die.
     People get discouraged so easily. They think that just because they need a mundane job in order to keep food on the table it means they can't also do the things they love. I think you can always do whatever you love, no matter the circumstances, and, like AB's video, no matter the money. There's a scene from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory that always really gets to me, and I know I mentioned it fleetingly like 4 months ago, but I'm going to mention it again. Charlie has just won the last golden ticket, his greatest wish and the envy of every child in the entire world, and he tells his family that he wants to sell it so they can have the money that they desperately need. But his grandfather, who posesses seemingly otherwordly wisdom says "There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket, there's only five of them in the whole world, and that's all there's ever going to be. Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?"
     Charlie was about to give up on his greatest dream just because of the need for money.
     I think that quote is something we should all live by. There's billions of dollars out there, and they'll keep printing and circulating money as long as we keep needing and spending it, but there's only one VaughnDL, and there's only one AB Elizabeth, and only one SE Wagner, and if we give up on the things we love most in the whole world just because we think they won't make us any money, or we think that people won't accept what we love, than we really are dummies.

Movie Recommendation: I'm actually going to skip a recommendation today because I want to do a post based entirely around a certain movie tomorrow, which I was going to do today, but got inspired by AB instead. So I'll have one for you tomorrow, I promise.
                                                                                    -VaughnDL