Yes, I Do

On Saturday night, we hosted two members of the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club. Tim took the older kids to the concert and then brought the young men back here, where they chatted with us, slept, and then had breakfast the next morning. By 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, they were back at the concert locale and probably on the road to Ann Arbor by noon.

Both students were freshmen, one a biochemistry major and the other undecided. I'll call them J and A, respectively, for clarity. J has possible plans to attend medical school, while A isn't sure what he wants to do, but he loves to write. I thought it funny that of all the people who could stay in my house for a night, I'd be assigned kids who shared my two passions of science and writing.

I listened to what both of them had to say about school, their families, and their plans for the future, and what stuck with me the most was A's outlook on his writing.

"I know what I'm writing now will be able to be published, so I'm having people read it and give me feedback," he said.


He doesn't know it, but I've been reflecting on that statement since Saturday evening. Here's this kid who harbors more confidence in himself than I do, despite the fact that I have more experience writing. Here's this kid who believes his story will be published. I know nothing about the topic of his book, nor do I know how well he can craft a sentence, but I do know he has the right attitude--an attitude I need to adopt.

And so from this moment on, I'll be practicing putting my confidence on. I'm going to believe in myself and convince myself that the only one stopping me is me. Do I have a good story? Yes, I do. Have I worked hard on revising the story? Yes, I have. Do I believe that it will be published? Yes, I do.

Comments

S.B. House said…
You should have confidence. There are so many stories out there of great stories that were rejected multiple times before the author found someone willing to publish them. I'm rereading Anne of Green Gables right now, and my copy has an introduction by L. M. Montgomery's granddaughter. She explains that the book was rejected for publication 5 times and put up in a hat box for a year before someone finally published it. That book has sold millions of copies, been translated into many other languages, been turned into a musical! It's beloved by so very many people, and it was rejected over and over again... sometimes I think being published has as much to do with happenstance as it does with actually being a quality writer.

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