Is It Worth It?

by G.Parker

Why do you write?

I've asked myself that several times during my life, and it always needs answering. This time, however, it wasn't myself doing the asking. It was others that I've come across.

In my co-working world, they were asking, why are we working? In my husbands world he was asking, why am I going to school? In one way or another, all of us ask at one point, why bother? What is the use? My husbands question in particular: why was he going to the effort of getting a degree when these younger men were already smarter than he was, without the schooling? When he graduated they would still be better and smarter, and he would still be playing catch up.

I thought about his complaint and how to respond. I've often thought about how I was going to be a famous writer by the time I was 40. That age has come and gone, without anything of that sort to show for it. I am a published illustrator -- something I'd never dreamed of -- but it's not quite the idea I had in mind. I see these amazing young authors with their mega sales and I wonder if it's ever going to happen for me. I don't know what their personal struggles have been. I know that some of them simply have amazing stories in their heads and some have had good timing.

But there is always going to be someone who has already done it. The story has already been told in a different way. The opportunity will not be quite the same as it could have been 10 years ago.

So it comes down to why you're doing it. Why do we sit and struggle with getting the words on paper day after day, week after week?

It remains that we are driven. This is something that's part of us. Regardless of what others are doing, how successful they become and how far behind we are or see ourselves, we must still push on, because that is what makes us what we are -- inside.

We are writers. 'Nuff said.