Part of preparing for college is exploring what you want to do and how you plan to get there. Currently, my son has a very specific career goal in mind. At the same time, we’re trying to encourage him to explore other avenues and just ‘see what’s out there.’
We had a ‘see what’s out there’ experience this past Saturday. One of the colleges in our area was having a computer science and engineering day where they specifically showcased the opportunities in that department. My son’s specific career goal may benefit from these programs. The only problem was he didn’t think so.
We went anyway. He learned more, got to talk to professors and other students, and even experience some of their technology. We took a full campus tour. He walked away feeling much more excited about the prospects in these fields. It may not change his mind, but he’s considering how these STEM-type fields will influence that specific career goal he has in mind.
He was even impressed with the dorms. This visit flipped a switch in his mind and has helped him open up to other possibilities.
When I first decided to try to write a book, my mind was set in a specific genre. It was one I loved, had several favorite authors in, and felt like I knew backwards and forwards. Until I sat down to write. Nothing. If I did come up with something, it never seemed to flow in a way that seemed natural. I submitted to a couple writing contests, hoping the encouragement of a hard deadline would help get the wheels turning. Nope.
What happened instead? I calmed myself enough to think about what I wanted to do and how I planned to get there. I sat down and wrote, only to have something completely different spill out on the paper. I enjoyed writing it. The ideas were flowing in the same way the ink was flowing out of my pen as I wrote in my notebook.
That work is a mystery. I’m also currently writing the paranormal stories you’re enjoying on Kindle Vella. These are both a bit of a far cry from what I set out to do originally: write romance.
Is there a time in your life when you thought it was going to go one way but went a totally different direction instead? Let’s talk about it in the comments or on Facebook!
I have a picture on my computer’s background right now of my son at just five-years-old. He’s walking down a Maui beach with messy feet and waterlogged shorts. His hair is blowing in the wind, and he has a silly grin. He’s by himself, but he’s walking toward what he wants – I’m pretty sure my husband and I are standing behind the camera, encouraging him to walk forward like the photographer wants.
Fast forward to today, or rather, last Wednesday. My husband and I sat in a room at his high school, listening to the college counselor talk about how they’re going to start prepping for college applications. As we listen, I still think it’s too early for this, because he’ll always be the little boy walking down the beach in Maui. But he’s not. He’s still looking forward to the fun and adventure ahead, but that fun and adventure has changed.
Instead, it’s fun and adventure on his own. Where? That’s yet to be determined. At school, he and his classmates will start to get familiar with the application process, they’ll start prepping for things like the ACT, and officially creating their “resume.” With us, he’ll be starting to tour more college campuses and learn about programs and figure out what he wants to do. He currently has his eye – and possibly his heart – set on a certain school, and this first choice may take him miles away. We’re encouraging him to look into schools closer to home, but we also understand he needs to investigate what’s best for where he wants to direct his future.
He also needs to know the road isn’t as smooth and straight as some people may lead you to believe. His dad and I are shining examples. If you’ve read my bio, you know I’ve had a very long road leading to where I want to be as a published author. Your support is helping me get there.
All the support my son is about to receive will help him get there, too.
Where do you find the most valuable support for what you do? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook!
The Normal Day will be fully-published by the end of the month! Episodes 1 & 2 are currently LIVE on Kindle Vella. Episode 3 will be up soon, followed quickly by episode 4.
Yesterday marked the first day of the New Year that life was “normal”: my son went back to school. His day, however, was anything but normal. His schedule changed quite drastically, and now he ping-pongs back and forth across the school seemingly for every class. He has new teachers to get used to, and scheduling like his first period class being moved to the very end of the day. He knows he’ll get used to it, but new routines are always difficult.
Another new routine that’s to become normal is this blog. As I said before, look for posts every Tuesday! Other new routines I hope to become normal include a writing schedule that gives you all a complete Kindle Vella story every month. It’s actually all scheduled out on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.
What are some of your normal routines? What do you hope to make a normal routine in 2024 – is it merely writing “2024” instead of “2023”? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook.
Two blog posts in a week? Yep! As I said in yesterday’s blog, you can expect to see some extra blogs for various holidays in addition to the regular weekly post. Yesterday was the holiday, today marks the first post of many Tuesday postings.
I’ve gotten this renewed spirit from a weeklong workshop I took. It started the day after Christmas and met daily through New Year’s Day. We examined our writing goals and other goals we desired to meet in 2024. Blogging more regularly is one of those goals for me, so I can connect with you all more.
One of the biggest things we talked about was setting goals and how we plan to reach those goals on a day by day, week by week, month by month schedule. When planning it all out, I thought it seemed like a lot. How would I fit it all in? Then I executed my first day’s To Do List. Just about everything on my calendar took anywhere from 1 to 2 hours to complete. I ended the day reviewing today’s schedule and making tweaks for what didn’t get done yesterday to carry it over to today or sometime later this week when it fits. I have a reading list for this year, but I’m also open to suggestions. I’m also planning on learning something new this year outside of writing. All of this is scheduled out all the way to December 31, 2024. The hope is that, yes, all of this will get done by December 31, 2024 if not sooner.
What are some things you plan on learning this year? Also, drop your reading recommendations in the comments so we can all learn something new!
Happy New Year! It’s 2024. How was your 2023? Did you achieve some or all of your goals? If not, that’s okay. I started some things just to see if I could do them. I started things to see if they’d actually have some sort of effect on my life. Around June of 2023 I started trying to meal plan. I have hundreds of recipes that I love and bunches that the rest of the family loves, too. But somehow, by the end of the day I just couldn’t decide what to make. If I wanted something out of our ordinary menu, I had to run out and buy the ingredients, which delayed preparing the meal. It was time and money consuming. Now, I sit down at the end of the month and plan the next month’s meals. It gives me a road map so I know what to buy – no more 11th hour trips to the grocery store to pick up “that one thing!” to make the meal go right. No more “default” meals of pasta or chicken breasts because those are easy and I almost always have the items on hand.
What do I plan for 2024? Of course carrying on with meal planning, but there are some other plans I’ve made, too. I don’t like the word “resolution.” It always seems like something that has to be done or else the day or week or other time constraint is a failure. I recently took a “fresh start” course with one of my writing groups. It went very in-depth about planning out goals for the year, breaking them up into manageable chunks all the way down to daily tasks. Some plans that will change what you all are seeing here:
– A goal of blogging once a week. New blogs will be released every Tuesday. I’ll have some special blogs for holidays or other occasions, too, to celebrate things big and small.
– A renewed dedication to my short story writing. You all may have noticed I’d started some paranormal short stories on Kindle Vella. I’ll be continuing with these, and I’ll be posting when new episodes are released.
Some plans will allow me to reach for my dreams more than ever before:
– A renewed dedication to my novel. When it’s not my full time job, it’s not something that gets prioritized. This class has shown me how to make sure my writing gets the attention it deserves while also being able to accomplish the many other things I need to accomplish.
What are some of your goal – not resolutions – for 2024?
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