Twenty-Eight

Yesterday on March 8, I turned twenty-eight. Yes, that's right. Yesterday was my birthday. It's hard to believe that I'm twenty-eight already. Ten years ago, I was eighteen and in my last year of high school. So much has changed in ten years. The most major change was my career goals.

In high school and part of college, I wanted to be an opera singer. I imagined myself singing on the great stages, like La Scala and the Met. I wanted to be on Broadway. The funny thing about dreams like that is that they don't always come true. I was a fair singer with some talent, but I lacked the drive to practice the way I should have. When I went to Missouri State University, I started out in Vocal Performance, had a horrible and unsupportive voice teacher, and learned that it would take five years to complete my degree. I didn't have the money nor the nerves to continue with vocal performance as my major.

Flipping through the course catalog, my dad mentioned the Antiquities degree. No, it doesn't mean I studied antiques. I changed my major to Classics with a minor in the Ancient Near East. I didn't know what I wanted to do with this degree, but I enjoyed the classes and professors too much to care what would happen when I graduated. Of course, when I graduated, I felt like a feather in the wind. I didn't know what to do with my life.

Things have changed a lot from even the five years (December 2010) since I graduated with my B.A. from MSU. I am a library assistant and am an aspiring writer. If you would have told me ten years ago that I would be an aspiring writer with published works, I would have said you were crazy. It's not anything I ever dreamed of, but as I said before, dreams are funny like that.

For the next ten years, I hope to continue with writing and being a librarian, including eventually getting my Masters in Library Science. The last twenty-eight years were pretty good, but I hope the next twenty-eight are even better.

And, speaking of good news and such, I had my first acceptance of 2010. I won third place in the Big Read. My short story "A Lesson Learned" will be published in the upcoming issue of the Virginia English Bulletin. I'm so excited about this, since it is a literary magazine. I don't know all the details yet, but I'll keep everyone updated.

I currently have six stories out there in submission world. I should know about one in the next day or so. The first three days of March were difficult (three rejections in three days), but with an acceptance like winning a contest, it makes it all worth it.