Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Everything in its own time

Lately my life has taken a turn I never thought it would. I’m about to go to Graduate School. I NEVER thought I would – when I was done with undergrad, that degree in hand, I declared myself FINISHED. And yet, here I am. Not only Graduate School, but going for a Masters in Library Science.

It was not my lifelong dream to be a librarian. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And yet…here I am. I got to try it on for size this year, and it suits me. For awhile after I made this decision, I wondered what had taken me so long to get to this point where I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. Why couldn’t I have done this sooner? After all, the big, scary 4.0 is looming. I’ll be just past it when I finish the Masters. I could have been doing this for years already if I’d only figured it out sooner. I’d be working full time (probably)and maybe life wouldn’t be so difficult on us now.

Then I realized that things come in their own time. Now, in 2009, I am able to go to GS through an online program. I’ll never have to set foot on campus, depending on where I decide to attend (I’m down to two choices and been accepted at one). When I graduated from undergrad, online college courses were in their infancy. I can work and raise my family AND get the degree, where I couldn’t before. Going to a physical school would be nearly impossible and very hard on my family.

It had to be in its proper time, and that’s the only way it could be.

So it is with writing. Why didn’t I start writing earlier in life? Why did it take me so long to WANT to write? I was thirty years old before I seriously sat down and considered that I could not only finish but publish a book. That’s a lot of lost time. Why not sooner? Because I wasn’t ready yet. It wasn’t yet my time.

There were doubts at first (and still today) and times when I felt, like all new writers, that the writing police were going to bust down the door and confiscate my computer, citing me for Writing with Intent to Nauseate. But at no other time in my Life Before Writing did I ever feel the draw or the confidence to put word on the screen that I thought people wanted to read.

And that’s what I need to keep reminding myself: Life is a journey, not a destination. These are the stops along the way, and you can’t get to the next one without rolling through the one before. I need to write THIS book and learn what I need to write the next one. This sentence. This word. It makes no sense to look back and regret or wonder why.

Everything has a season.