The Year of the Longshot

Dreamers, hear this. This is the Year of the Longshot. The dreams you’ve wished for, those things immaterial that would change your life forever could happen. Set a goal this year and work towards it. Life isn’t as long as we some how convince ourselves it is.

It’s always been a goal of mine to have at the end of my life something that will out last me, my children, my very lineage. Since I write, and some have told me that I write well, and I believe them, a book is the logical anchor to tie my tether to between this life and the next. Over the years I’ve written many short stories, many-many poems, and two novellas. I even wrote a 300+ page novel, but I can’t bring myself to read it. I wrote it fresh out of high school and truthfully, I’m embarrassed of what I might’ve written in my amateur hand.

All that I’ve written before was what I call pre-writing, the writing that I write to get some where. I write a lot, but I keep very little. This is all part of my process. Now, this year, I am writing; truly, fully engaged in writing. I’m writing a book and I’m one chapter in. One step closer to my goal and that much closer to my dream.

If when I finish the book and no publisher will take it on, or worse one will take it on and no one will read it, I’ll be upset for I will have, in my eyes, failed. But it will be the type of failure that’s lighter than most. It will be a failure earned, not a failure from inaction. Just because this is the Year of the Longshot doesn’t mean that you won’t fail, too. But what would you rather? Failure light? Or Failure with all the fatty trimmings?

If you remember anything at all from this post, remember this:

Dreams do nothing for anyone tucked gently under pillows or folded away in a desk somewhere.

And wishes are just as bad. There are no stars to wish on, there are no railroad crossings to lift your feet over, there are no wispy seeds to catch, and 11:11 is just a number. You make your dreams happen, try and you might fail. Don’t, and you surely will.

This is the Year of the Longshot, start making strides people. Good luck.