Success– we all want it, but what does it take to succeed, and what does success even mean? I think that success is finishing an adventure after you start one. It means having a goal in mind and meeting it, like the check mark on a to-do list. So, success depends on who we want to be and where we want to go.

Many people, trying to get to know me, will ask about work and school, and where I see myself in five or ten years. Recently, the conversations always end up pretty much the same way:

“What is your degree?”

“BA in English.”

“So, you want to be a teacher?”

“No, I want to write; I studied creative and professional writing.”

After this, the conversation will vary, but about half the time, the person will say: “I think you would make a great teacher.”

People are kind, I’ve found- kind and doubtful. My entire college career was full of similar conversations, and I find myself repeating the same theme over and over again. We have it drilled into our heads that writers are starving artists, except the fortunate few who succeed- as if success was a lottery and nothing but chance dictates the winners.

Conversation after conversation, I found myself apologizing for my degree and fielding comments about the need for students to get useful degrees like engineering or pharmacy. A bachelors in arts was considered a fluff degree one gets to be able to master in something useful like law. After a time, I became sensitive to the conversations and I began to doubt.

Those doubts are why I made some very acerbic comments about my degree to family members and friends. It’s why, after trying to get a writing job and failing, I decided to give up and get a boring retail gig. It’s why I work at an optometrist’s office right now. I gave up far too easily. I decided that after a few months of not getting a writing job that I was done. Done! As if, after a mere few months a passion of a lifetime was just going to convert into a more profitable passion– and that I was going to find it by stumbling around without a plain goal in sight!

Things came into perspective for me, though, when I arrived at a point when I took an inventory of my life and realized that I was so emotionally exhausted at the end of each day that I wasn’t available to my family because I had used all of my resources to be happy at work that there were none left to be civil at home.

So, I’m making a change. I’m moving away from the apologetic attitude of self-flagellation and into a future where I’ll invest in what I love.

I’m going to do what successful people do- go for it. A person who never begins the adventure has already failed.

I’m not just stopping at a blog, either. I’m here to help you. I want to help you get your ideas out into the world. You provide the ideas and I’ll provide the grammar and syntax you need to make your ideas shine. Any editing, consulting, translating, technical or creative writing services that you need, I am here to help. I know English and Spanish. I know social media for businesses. I know how to make manuals. I know my stuff. You know your voice, your product, your audience. Together, we can make magic happen.

Enough with the sales pitch. Thank you for joining me on this adventure. It’ll be a success, wherever the road takes us.