“You said you love writing, that it’s like breathing for you…”
I don’t have the exact message with me right now, but it was along those lines. My sister wrote me that message about 2 years ago. This was right around the time she told me she had paid for a class for me, a creative writing masterclass. That I should be on the lookout for emails from them. I freaked out. What if this huge Kenyan blogger – and my writing instructor-to-be – crapped all over my writing? What then?
It wasn’t until days later that I found out how much the class cost. Then I freaked out some more. What if my sister’s faith in me was misplaced? What then?
That writing class saw me earnestly trying to pursue writing as a career. It also showed me just how little I knew about this thing I claimed to love. This led to me taking more writing classes trying to be a better writer.
That class and the ones that followed helped me land a writing job. The email telling me I got the job stressed how impressed they were, not with my writing, but with my efforts to become a better writer. I was so jazzed when that email came in. I even did a few cartwheels. Wait, mental ones count, right? And of course, when the excitement wore off, then came the freakout to end all freakouts. What if I messed this up? What then?
Now as I look at the message saying that my first payment has come in, I’m looking back to where it all started. That first writing class and the first piece of writing that I did for the class. It’s a reminder of how far I have come and also how far I still have to go. What then?
Well, I’m looking forward to finding out, freakouts and all. In the meantime, it being lunchtime, here’s the first piece that I wrote for that first writing class. Bon appétit!
For lunch today, I had a simple egg sandwich and coffee. We had just one egg in the house. I was grabbing a bite in between running errands, so I didn't really want to go out and get more eggs or other condiments.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anywhere close to being Martha Stewart, not even in my wildest dreams. So even if I had plenty of time at my disposal and lots of ingredients to work with, I definitely wouldn’t have come up with some cordon bleuesque creation.
I usually put paprika and cayenne in my eggs but I wasn’t feeling spicy today, so it was just the egg and salt. The egg came out a little on the burnt side, which is how I like my eggs- overly done- I don’t do “rare” anything. And I don’t mean black-burnt, but brown-burnt. We don’t have a toaster so I just put the two slices of bread on the same pan that I fried the egg on. It still had a bit of oil from the egg-frying and had a hint of the egg taste. The bread browned nicely on both sides. I wished there was leftover cabbage or spinach, part of my go-to ingredients for my egg sandwich. Yep! Jamie Oliver has nothing on me. Plus, I figure this way, I have all the food groups covered, well almost all.
And I made coffee. No coffeemaker in the house, but there’s this kamethod of making coffee that my bro got from YouTube that mimics a coffee maker. Lunch conquered? Check!
Knightlessjules 