Kilimanjaro: Still Climbing

More than a year ago, I declared my Kilimanjaro: become a professional writer.  I set a clear direction for myself and I did really well until I got to the last step and then I stalled. Here’s what we’re looking at:

1. Tell the internet what I’m doing.
2. Keep blogging a lot and at the best quality I can.
3. Officially quit my second job to focus on writing.
4. Go unanonymous.  Like, attach my full name to this place and everything that I write.
5. Step up my self-promotion and pretend not to feel awkward about it.
6. Write like hell.
7. Submit, submit, submit!

Fear and uncertainty and laziness got the best of me, and what for a while felt very clear, became blurry and I didn’t know what to do next.  I tried showing up and staring at my computer and taking breaks and reading books, but finally I decided to just commit myself to something I was scared of and hope I’d figure it out.  That was the idea behind the guest blogs.

It’s a little weird to admit I was scared of guest blogging. What I mean is that I was scared of writing under pressure about specific things for other people in a context I wasn’t familiar with.  But I did it and it wasn’t scary at all.  It was fun. So I’m trying to hold on to this momentum and confidence to keep writing and–gulp!–start submitting.

I think I’m ready, internet.  Okay, but here are the last of the guest blogs:

“Traveling Alone” on Ashalah 
Ashley inspired me to travel alone before I even knew that traveling alone was a thing I wanted to do (and before we were friends).  I’ve said that it’s a thing I’m scared of, but a thing I want to do. In this post, I explain all of that. Plus, castles and beer and bears.

“Working While You’re in School” on Jennbizzle 
Jenn is headed back to school, so I thought I’d write about my extensive experience of working while being a student.  I’ve had a dynamic relationship with work since I got my first real job in high school.  Sometimes I worked a lot because I had to and sometimes I worked a lot because I was avoiding other things.

“And this ain’t no pale reflection/ this is the real thing” on Billygean 
Most people won’t recognize the title as a David Gray lyric, but I knew Billygean would.  This post is about my debt and the silly excuses I used to stay in debt.  Plus, something about really living.

“I feel about music the way some people feel about love” on Dance to the Radio 
Liz is one of my oldest blog friends and she asked me to write about music. Music is more difficult for me to write about than just about anything.  But I tried to capture my love for it and the role it plays in my life.

“Staying Creative When You’re in Grad School” on Aquatic Behavior
Tori asked me how I have managed to stay creative while in grad school.  This is one of those questions that brings to light again how important blogging has been for me.  I started less because I wanted this outlet and mostly because I needed it.  I’ve written to keep myself sane and connected while being a busy grad student.