Being a Nobody

 I have always had this tugging feeling in me that I wanted to be a writer. I never studied the craft or made a discipline out of it, but I have always felt that there was a story within me that one day would need to be told. I told my husband about this secret desire and he was so encouraging and supportive, it was the first time I had really been motivated to start finding my voice.

I decided as a New Year's Resolution to become a student of the craft. To start writing daily, to read memoirs, to work toward some kind of thesis or idea. But in the back of my mind, this little voice keeps saying, "Who are you to write? You aren't particularly smart, you haven't had a monumental life, you haven't really accomplished much of anything... what makes you think anyone would be interested in what you have to say?"

And that is all true. I'm a nobody who has really done nothing.

Then yesterday at school, we started reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. As a lead up to reading chapter one, we read her letter to the reader. As I was reading it aloud to my class I thought- in the most kind way I can say this- SE Hinton was a nobody from a nothing town. She wasn't particularly special or smart or living a monumental life. But she sat down and wrote and observed and found her voice and wrote some more. And she crafted one of the greatest works of literature that is studied by students all over the United States.

My friend Michelle gifted me the book, "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" by Stephen King. Within the first few pages he writes, "I thought to myself, who am I to be writing this?" 

I was shocked! Um... you're Stephen King, that's who you are! But it showed that we all doubt ourselves, and feel an unworthiness when it comes to sharing. 

This inspired me. I felt as though I was in good company, another nobody had accomplished something. It at least gave me the push to write this morning and give writing a try.