Live The Life You Imagined

A Round of Words in 80 Days is meant to remind us writers that we have lives outside of writing. Not only that, but the life outside of writing is often what inspires us to write in the first place! My inspirational post will be short today because I want to practice what I preach. I want to get out there and live.

I don’t only want to get out there and live, I want to live the life I imagined. Here’s a secret of mine: I’ve been in the real world for ten months (I went straight to grad school after undergrad, so I’ve been in school the last seven years). It has been a tough transition because I understood the academic system like the back of my hand. I still don’t quite understand this whole “working for a paycheck” vs “working for the love of it.” A week or so ago, however, I realized that maybe I’m just looking at things with the wrong attitude.

When I was little, I imagined I would be a published author by the time I was 25. Check. I wanted to have my own place, be independent. Check and check. Now, I don’t have a husband, which I thought I would by this point, but doesn’t every 16-year-old think that? If this is something I want, truly, then I need to be out there living rather than writing alone.

I’m not saying don’t write. Just don’t write alone. Go to a coffee shop, library, wi-fi enabled restaurant if you write on the computer. Go to the park and write in your journal. Surround yourself with people and engage them when the opportunity strikes. You never know what might happen. Perhaps you will have a conversation that inspires your next chapter or book.

At the end of the day, your experience with ROW80 is determined by your attitude and availability. Where do you see yourself when this round is complete? Can you imagine it? What do you have to do to get there?

Whatever it is, get out there and do it. Why wait? Live the life you imagine you will be living in June today.

~*~

Belinda Kroll