Later I became interested in alternative energy and built a passive solar window heating unit when we bought a bigger house. It worked, but I really was not too pleased with its appearance outside or inside where it stuck through the window. I sewed curtains, planted flower beds, refinished a chest of drawers, wallpapered the bathroom and built a shelf unit for it, laid carpet on our front and back porches and put together a back porch water fountain.
Again, these were projects I chose to attempt, and not a lot was riding on the outcomes of the individual projects. But, cumulatively, I now know, they were building up my courage to attempt something I'd wanted to do since childhood - write.
I wrote some small things, entered contests, and lost. When I look at some of the things I wrote then, I chuckle. No wonder I lost contests and no one would publish my stuff. But I was learning. I subscribed to Writers Digest and bought some of their books. I got discouraged.
Then I began a program to earn my college degree, a dream almost as old as my writing dream. I put the writing aside for a couple of years and earned the degree. Retired. And began writing again. Perseverance paid off and the next year a story was accepted for publication in a small circulation magazine. My first acceptance. Another small win of a pot in the poker game of life, concrete, external validation as a writer.
©2004 Sylvia Nickels