My husband took a job at K-State University. I lived in McCook, NE for most of my life, now I must move to the other side of Kansas. A place that I knew nothing of and where no one knew me. To some it would be scary and you would be right, but I also saw it as a new opportunity. A fresh start.
We move into a house my husband's parents bought for themselves that they planned to remodel as their retirement home later in years. My husband would drive an hour to Manhattan for work and I was unemployed for a while. Our daughter goes to school in the town we moved to that is a population of 733 and combines schools in other towns close by. I needed to find a job, but I needed to be close to our daughter in case something happens in an area we never lived in before with little family close by. I get a job as a sub-para teacher but wasn’t making enough hours. It was in Dec of 2018 that I had to make a choice. I had the opportunity to make a job of my own or continue with one that gave very little hours. I chose to take my book back up, and I totally changed it from what it once was. I change the plot and characters, but the best feeling of it was when I got passed that damn chapter. I found myself enjoying my writing like I did as a kid. I also looked up helpful tips on YouTube for writers and how to be a self-published author. It is not so easy to be a self-published author but that hasn’t stopped me. This is now something I want to do for myself and doubt will not stop me.
In May 2019 I finished my rough draft. In Dec 2019 I finished my first round of Beta Readers and Pro Editor. With another round to go, I’m only a few more steps away from publishing.
I have finally taken a path that I chose to take and it makes me think of my favorite poem of all time by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The road less traveled by for me is the one I neglected for years because I was pushed to be on a road that was safe, either by something or myself. This time I’m taking the road less traveled by and it is making a difference in me, one for the better.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Have you had an experience like this?