I've Decided to Convert to Monogamy

For a long time now, I have been very unsettled – unable to find my thing. Most everyone out there has a thing, whether they know it or not. Some people’s things are simply beautiful like baking or quilting. Others have things that have shaped their careers, like professional sport-players, celebrities (a worthy few can be excluded), photographers, or journalists. Others still have things that they use solely to escape from reality, like Xbox junkies or romance-novel collectors. Then you have the people who use their things to bring them inner-peace, like hikers or yoga-fanatics. Further still, you have the obsessive-types who at one point in time had lives, but then let their things run away with them, like serious dog-show competitors or mimes. I’m just kidding, I really like mimes – they are so uncanny. But whatever the case, not only is everyone’s thing born from what they love, but also from their talent. This is where I’ve had some issues. The two (what I love and what I’m good at), for me, have never meshed. Or, I simply couldn’t pin down what it was, exactly, that I loved.

I’ve always been alright at writing. English has always been one of my better subjects in school, and the assignments I always got the most praise for were things I had written. I’ve had family and friends tell me I’m a good writer, and for all of my life I have adored reading, which almost all authors claim is what brought them to their craft. Typically, when people find they are really good at something, they do it. They do it because they like the reaction they get, and in most cases they will get paid the most to do it, thus, if you plug all the variables into the formula, they love what they’re good at doing. Me, though, well I’m just really stubborn.

For years I have considered other hobbies, or things, even though I knew that I was destined to be a writer. I’ve had affairs with other unsuitable passions and have been nothing but disappointed. And so, in order to use the talent God gave me to serve Him in the way for which He equipped me best, and to become the person He always knew me to be, I hereby declare that I am entering into a fully monogamous relationship with my thing. I am a writer. Not an actress, fashion designer, dollhouse maker, baker, singer, film-maker, or Amish culture expert (don’t ask), I’m who God made me to be. And, get this, I accept it.