I have always been drawn to success stories of people who make a living doing the things they love. Like most millennials my age, I’ve dreamt a lot of dreams. The most common ones being a rockstar or a surfer but if there’s one thing that I’ve always dreamt about turning into a reality it’s being a writer.
It wasn’t always like this. I never imagined that I would actually end up leaving my solid corporate career to pursue writing as a profession but I did. How I decided to leave everything behind was an accumulation of various events that lead me to realize how passionate I was about writing.
I felt something lacking and somehow, in hindsight I realized I needed a creative outlet. I went lengths to try to discover what could fill in this creative void that I felt. This search led me far from home and into the world of surfing as a lifestyle, which greatly changed my perspective of life.
The experiences I had with the ocean had taught me so much that I couldn’t just let them be intangible memories. I wanted to relive the memories and the feelings that came along with it. Photos were not enough because I didn’t always bring a camera with me in the water. That was when I started writing again.
Fearfully, I wrote about my experiences of chasing after waves. I knew I was still afraid of others reading my work so I kept my writing to myself. Whenever I wrote, I always felt the indescribable satisfaction that I felt back then when everything seemed new.
The feeling is comparable to a surfer’s stoke from riding a wave. I get that kind of euphoric high whenever I finished writing something, whatever the subject may be. Then it hit me. I’ve always been writing ever since I could remember and I realized that the answer was right under my nose all along.
I’ve always longed to be a writer. To bring to life words that pulls strings of emotions in souls. I’ve always kept this dream so buried within my fears that I had to fight out fear itself to realize that if I never risked this, I would regret this forever.
To bring tidings of encouragement, here are a few questions I’ve chanced upon that have helped me to continue on this journey.
You know the answer to the question: Why do you need to write?
There’s always something that makes my heart stir whenever I hear people relate to what I write or if I read something so powerful that it stirs the emotions inside me. Wishing that I could have written what I just read moves me to write better. If photographers capture moments with light, I would like to believe that as a writer, we either capture memories or create reality through words.
One of my favorite authors, Austrian poet and novelist Ranier Maria Rilke from his book “Letters to a Young Poet” captures this perfectly:
Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.
Stay tuned next week for the continuation of this story. Meanwhile, you can check out my blog: www.millennialmermaid.com for more stories.
