For those of you who live under a rock she is the author of the Harry Potter series.
I watched in silence through the entire show and I felt as if J.K.R. were almost speaking directly to me... I know how corny that sounds belive me but I truly felt the weight of every word she spoke resignating within.
For as long as I can recall I wanted to be a writer; at first I wanted to write songs and then it became poetry and then for awhile I wanted to write editorial but in between and more now than ever I have always wanted to be a novelist.
I've dreamed of the day my writing would be published and fall into the hands of many people eager to dissolve into my stories. I want to be able to capture something that people sit back and say "wow" as they stick thier book mark in between pages.
And corny as it sounds I've always dreamed that I would meet Oprah by making the bestsellers list!
But back to the inspirational Ms. Rowling - One thing she said in the interview that stuck with me was a piece from her 2008 commencement speech for Harvard University:
"I've often met people who are terrified—you know, in a straitjacket of their own making—because they'd rather do anything than fail. They don't want to try for fear of failing," she says. "[Hitting] rock bottom wasn't fun at all—I'm not romanticizing rock bottom—but it was liberating. What did I have to lose?"
In hearing that statement it hit me that my problem is fear. I suppose in the back of my mind I've always known this and when I told D this fact he pretty much stared at me with a look like "I could have told you that" but for some reason hearing this from her mouth, from somebody who's been there and gone through the process of being turned down and finally reaching the top... someone who didn't have any schooling to back up her creditials to write this book that became a phenomenon ... it made me sit back and think "I could do that too".
To once again quote Jo, when O asked if she'd always wanted to be a writer or if she'd always known she would be she replied that writing has always been a part of her and when she didn't write she felt lost.
I can relate to that having always had a journal and writing this blog and the many attempts at story writing I've made I can truly say that writing is in my blood. In response O said 'that's how you know you were born to do it' and in hearing that I felt shaken to the core... despite being told I am good at it and being told I should persue it I just never gave myself enough credit to say Ok but somehow in hearing that statement I felt like a wave of "Duh" (for lack of a better way to put it) slammed me back into the couch. Perhaps THIS is what I am meant to do.
This is the answer I've been looking for all along.
I don't in a million years believe that I would ever be at the status J.K.R. is, being the first billionaire author! But I do have a hope in me that I could have a book out there and even if only one person were to buy it and be touched by my story that would be enough for me (even if that one person were my own Mother!)
So I've decided that I shouldn't hold back anymore from trying to reach my dreams. Next time I have a good idea I'm going to work with it, even it takes me years to go from start to finish I will persevere and I will believe in myself. As Jo said "The hardest part will be to get published" and I know that will stand true but if I can do that I can prove to myself that dreams come true.
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