30 Days of Thanks: Day 13

Today I am thankful for...words.

I remember learning to read in kindergarten. Not the mechanics of it, but the sheer excitement of putting a whole sentence together and the world that opened up as a result. Ever since that first "Cat on the mat" sentence, I have been in love with words. In second grade, I wrote my first real story. I was a voracious reader in elementary school. Our school participated in the Pizza Hut Book It! program (which I was shocked to discover is still going strong) and let's just say we ate a lot of free pizza thanks to my literary habit. I excelled in English classes and spent summers buried in piles of books.

Early on, I knew I wanted to be a writer. It's been the one constant in my life. But it seemed impractical. In college, I followed the practical writer's track: Journalism School. My job in public relations seemed like a natural fit for the writer in me. But it wasn't enough. Once I had peanut, this blog became the outlet. But it's not enough. Of course the practical side of me tends to win out and the bathroom gets cleaned or the laundry gets folded instead of my fingers flying across a keyboard, my brain chasing an idea, watching letters become words that become sentences that express a thought or portray an image or maybe even offer perspective.

Although I struggle with the doing, I still find comfort that the words are there waiting for me, like fish in a lake, viciously swimming and churning under the calm, cool surface. It takes a lot of patience and a little coaxing to lure them to your line, but the persistent fishermen always win out with a catch. Maybe with a little time and a little practice, I'll catch the big one and finally finish that novel and maybe even see my words in print.

And oh, what a fishing tale that will be.