For years I’ve allowed the many voices from my past dictate to me what I can and can’t do in this life. Having grown up to respect my elders as well as other’s first, I have always done just that. But as of late, I have begun to re-wire my thought process, so to speak, in a way where I now have begun to look at myself first and ask questions, many of which begin with the word, “Why.”
If you know me, you know that even as a small child, I’d be the first one to raise my hand in class and ask the teacher, “Why?” In many cases, it was further explained to me, or even I found some answers in a book or in my study guides. But one of the answers I often received when it came to life, in general, was, “Because it is,” or “Because I said so.” That never really sat well with me, but I had been trained to take that statement at face value, and for years, I did, even if I was rebelling deep inside myself.
I say all of this to say this: I have always, always had one particular dream, and that was to become a published, in print, name out there, author. My dad used to say, “What you say gets put into motion,” and I never really understood that one single bit. Was that some kind of ritual or voo-doo rigmarole that I was supposed to be doing? Should I be dancing to the gods for what I want to have happen in my life? Of course, I’ve over-dramatized my thought process, but you get the point.
That being said, I began to call myself an author. I’d tell people I wrote & that was my vocation, but sadly, I had nothing in print except for a couple of poems in the Library of Congress. What I didn’t realize was that you can say things until you are blue in the face, but if you don’t put action behind your words? This stuff just isn’t going to fall into place. We need to be putting our feet behind our words and begin to work hard toward these dreams, goals and desires.
Moving forward, my eyes began to be opened to this truth, and when I realized that, I began to research and study and figure out what exactly I needed to be doing to make this happen for me. I have been writing since the age of 11, and I have many, many stories as well as poetry penned, yet not a one of them is in print. But all of that is changing even right now as I write this. I am now putting work behind my dreams and what I speak.
I am excited about my future, and I have not been full of this much enthusiasm since the day I found out I had earned the Valedictorian award. I seriously knew back then that I had worked very hard for that to be accomplished, and I need to work just as hard now to accomplish this next step.
As I move closer to being 40 years old, life has made it known that it’s short, and we aren’t promised a tomorrow. We have to make the best of today, and we do that by setting up goals for our future. To only work, eat, sleep, party on the weekends and repeat is no way to live. We truly begin to live when we actually set a goal and do everything we can to achieve it. What are some goals you have set or will be setting in this upcoming year? I’d love to hear from you!
E.A.Hamm 