Lets Get Real
Most of my life growing up, I was told by nearly everyone that the only way I was going to be happy was by getting a stable well paying job, getting married, and settling for a life that a lot of people would kill for. For a while, that was the life I chased because who doesn’t want to be happy? Then, I broke up with a partner that I was settling with, packed all of my belongings to get out of a city I never really liked, got a job, and moved to a city where I maybe knew one other person and was told was terrible place to live because they are afraid of the diversity.
Everything in my life flipped. I was on my own. There were no longer voices in my head to tell me what was wrong or right, and I had a chance to figure out what actually made ME happy, not everyone else around me. I lost a lot of people in my life. People said I had changed, but all I could see were the improvements. It was liberating to have MY life.
Though, habits are hard to break. I went back to settling with a job, I bought a house, the only thing I was far from ready for was marriage—I later realised there were quite a few reasons for that!
During the year of 2020, I was stuck at home for a month after I had travelled as things were shutting down. In that time, I had been sitting on a manuscript that I had written for nothing but fun. All my writing had been for fun because I thought doing anything with them was pointless.
Until I actually met an indie author who showed me that it was actually possible to just put your stuff out there.
That month long lock-in was what I needed to deep dive into the research of how one actually publishes a book. It took up at least 18 hours of my day, everyday, for a month. Watching YouTube videos, reading articles, pouring over author websites, publisher pages, agent reviews, marketing strategies, etc. I wanted to know EVERYTHING I could to know what my next steps should be.
Working with Represent Publishing was the best path forward for me. It was affordable, got the book into the right hands, and what I needed most of all…the book in MY hands. Nothing in my life compared to that moment of seeing my book for the first time.
Being able to hold it made me realise that I would NEVER be happy living the life so many would trade for. An amazingly paying job, a house at the age of 21, and stability.
I went through the motions. Worked multiple jobs, saved up money, built a safety net for myself so that when I decided to make the jump in 2024, I wouldn’t just immediately fall flat on my face and prove everyone right—that this was just a stupid daydream.
The creative industry is NOT for the faint of heart. It has been the hardest job I have ever had. I work more hours than I ever have. My work life balance is so far skewed its unreal.
But I’m happy.
I love what I do, and even though it causes me stress, I sometimes worry if I can even afford my rent some months from the instability, and I am told by people in my life that I’m just digging my own grave—this is the life I have always wanted.
To create.
No matter what my future holds, I will never regret choosing this career path. Nothing has made me feel as alive than the work I am doing right now.
