Making Independence Day Personal

by Sue Ann Jaffarian

My posting today is going to piggy-back and expand on Mark Combes’ excellent posting of two days ago about independence and writing.

I do a lot of motivational speaking and my main topic is usually about turning dreams into goals and goals into reality. I always wanted to be a published author. And I mean always, ever since I was a kid. For years, I would go into libraries and book stores, find where on the fiction shelf my books would one day appear and physically spread that spot apart to make room for them … one day. Now I go into libraries and book stores to check to see if they are there.

What does Independence Day mean to me as applied to my life as a writer? It means not just choosing my destiny, but having the courage to choose it and follow it in the face of naysayers, critics, and time and finance restraints. It means making sacrifices to follow it wherever it might lead. It means having the strength and determination to keep moving when I get knocked down. And it means celebrating both the small and large achievements that help me reach for the next level.

Independence Day is more than just the celebration of the birth of our nation. Independence Day is a mind set. For me, independence is about making my dreams become realities.