"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something." Steve Jobs
You know that old saw, "life is what happens while you are making other plans. John Lennon"? Well, after a number of years as a secretary, I wanted, needed to reach out to my writing, so I joined a couple writing groups. Wonderful! I found poetry was something I loved to write. After a few more years, I realized the job market in my town sucked big time and I need more independence; it was time to grow up, rather late, but none the less, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, my home today, and started my own writing group after getting a job close to my new neighborhood to establish myself, open bank account, make some friends. Having my own writing group and turning out the monthly newsletter was wonderful.
Also, you know how meeting someone can change your life? Shortly before leaving for Columbus, I had a telephone call from someone interested in the writing group I was contact person for. She was the most fascinating person I'd ever met. We talked and she told me she was a person with multiple personalities and was at the local teaching university medical center and wanted to join a writing group. Her excitement talking with me was electric and like nothing I'd experienced before. She told me she was in a wheel chair after one of her personalities tried to kill her by jumping off a cliff. I swear to God, I had never known a person with multiple personalities before but somehow I knew she was the real McCoy. It was January, snow on the ground, but she planned to come to our next writing meeting. I don't recall her name anymore, but meeting her on the phone was life changing for me. I started writing about a person with multiple personalities, a subject that had interested me in the past but I had not known anyone like that. I wrote a few pages and then stopped. This wasn't like other writing, I could hear the character who was telling this story. So I read it out loud and realized I was writing my first play. Exciting, but I was packing and moving to Columbus, Ohio within a month and had to put writing on a back burner, in order to learn about where I was moving to and to plan my move and what I'd do in Columbus. So I did not write much more but kept it where I could find it in the mess of throwing away stuff, packing stuff, etc. In addition, my cat died so I adopted a new one from the pound because I needed a friend to move with me from all I had known to someplace new...
Also, you know how meeting someone can change your life? Shortly before leaving for Columbus, I had a telephone call from someone interested in the writing group I was contact person for. She was the most fascinating person I'd ever met. We talked and she told me she was a person with multiple personalities and was at the local teaching university medical center and wanted to join a writing group. Her excitement talking with me was electric and like nothing I'd experienced before. She told me she was in a wheel chair after one of her personalities tried to kill her by jumping off a cliff. I swear to God, I had never known a person with multiple personalities before but somehow I knew she was the real McCoy. It was January, snow on the ground, but she planned to come to our next writing meeting. I don't recall her name anymore, but meeting her on the phone was life changing for me. I started writing about a person with multiple personalities, a subject that had interested me in the past but I had not known anyone like that. I wrote a few pages and then stopped. This wasn't like other writing, I could hear the character who was telling this story. So I read it out loud and realized I was writing my first play. Exciting, but I was packing and moving to Columbus, Ohio within a month and had to put writing on a back burner, in order to learn about where I was moving to and to plan my move and what I'd do in Columbus. So I did not write much more but kept it where I could find it in the mess of throwing away stuff, packing stuff, etc. In addition, my cat died so I adopted a new one from the pound because I needed a friend to move with me from all I had known to someplace new...
Stay tuned for a part 3. Tell me about your story in the comments below! Check in often for new blog posts here at Writers' Ink.
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