Usually I hate February. It’s a dark, bleak little month.
Rain dances through the days and frost greets every morning. You have no money
and little motivation. Additional weight gained at Christmas still hangs from
your waist like a guilty secret and the resolution to take regular jogs feels
like a long forgotten joke.
Yep, it’s usually a month I enter with fear and loathing. It’s
usually the month I put a big black cross through, before rushing back to bed
and reading myself through it.
Except this year!
This year was different.
February 2015 would be significant for me in many ways.
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1. I would leave my job
2. I would run my first Author visit
3. 7 Days would finally be published.
Leaving my job was the first positive more. It was a tiring
and stressful job that was no good for me in the long term. A job where I would
go home and feel mentally and physically exhausted, barely able to think, let
alone type. Resigning was like a strange release and I already know it’s the
best thing I could’ve done. Yeah ok, we’re poorer. But I’m calmer and that has
to be a good thing, right?
Next was a thing that filled me with fear. What doesn’t kill
you, makes you stronger right? That’s exactly how I felt about stepping out of
my comfort zone and entering a brand new school as an author.
I’d done events at my
own schools, but this was new and alien. I walked into the building, clutching
my bag and trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in the pit of my tummy. BUT it
ended up being the best. The students I met were so lovely and engaged and so
interested in both 7 Days and my work as an author. I left feeling both
inspired and accepted. I realised the buzz I’d gained was a totally new and
refreshing experience. This was good for me.
And finally, February was when 7 Days was let out into the
big bad world.
And it was a lovely day. I had cake mid-morning (why not). I
treated myself to a dress. I received lots of wonderful tweets from supportive
followers everywhere. I chatted on-line to other fabulous authors who were
being published on the same day. We were all doing different things, but we all
felt the same mixture of excitement and anticipation.
Then in the afternoon, I received a wonderful bouquet of
flowers from my publisher that so far I have managed not to kill (a new record
I feel).
Later, I went for a meal with my husband. I had a lovely cocktail and
a delicious Caribbean curry and toasted the start of an amazing year.
Because it will be an amazing year. This will be the first
year I can actually admit to myself that I have ‘done it’, I have accomplished
a dream. And whatever life throws at me, whatever the new ups and downs – I need
to remind myself of this one moment.
The moment when I became a published author.
The moment when I finally felt like me.
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