All Roads Lead to Rome (or Dublin)

As a teenager/young adult I dreamed of visiting England. So after completing junior college in Idaho, I signed up for a three-week study aboard to visit Ireland, Scotland, England, France, and Belgium. Then disaster struck.

I lost my passport right before I was supposed to leave. I went to the airport on the day the group was to depart (without me) and talked to the directors. Once I got my new passport, I would fly alone to Ireland, and the group would pick me up at the airport in Dublin. But I would miss the first three days of the trip.

Being somewhat of an introvert, I was not thrilled with the idea of traveling across the ocean alone. But I did it, and the rest of the trip was amazing.

Was my experience aboard any better or worse from anyone else's because I came late? No; it was just different. Traveling by myself helped me gain courage for other life experiences to come. And though I only saw Ireland from the bus window, I apparently missed having to spend the night in the least desirable accommodations of the trip because I joined the group later.

All of us have dreams, some of us even have similar dreams, but the way we get there is totally unique. It's not necessarily better or worse than somebody else's journey. It's just different, because it's your journey.

Don't Knock It Till You've Tried It

Seven years ago, sans children, my husband and I went with my family to Maui. One of the things we got to do was hike to some waterfalls to swim. When we reached the first waterfall, I didn't go into the water. Not that I'm scared of water (okay, maybe I'm a little nervous about swimming in the ocean - but that's what Jaws will do to you); I just don't like cold water.

So I sat on the shore for an hour, working up the gumption to go in and watching the rest of the group having a great time swimming underneath the waterfall. Finally, I mustered up enough courage to wade in the shallow part and then I dove in. Soon after, it was time to go, but now I didn't want to get out. I was having too much fun!

Sometimes in life there are things we want to do but don't because they look too hard, too scary, too big, too (fill in the blank). But you'll never know what you can do - write a novel, travel to a new place, learn a language, make a change within yourself - until you try.

Too often we let our fears (particularly fear of failure) get in the way. The title of a book I read several years ago, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, says it all. Feel the fear, but don't let it paralyze you. Maybe you'll write the next bestseller, or turn into an amazing chef, or simply become a better person. You can't know until you try.

Been There, Done That

Another fun story from Child #2. He was telling me a couple of weeks back about when he was six. "But I thought you were three, almost four," I said. He replied, "I grew back down to three." My youngest sister did the same thing as a kid - talking about all the stuff she'd done when she was older.

We as writers do something similar. For example, I was watching Flyboys last night (James Franco used to be my movie crush), which takes place in France during WWI. One of my novels takes place in the same country three years later. But as I watched the show, I kept thinking how familiar it felt. Though I didn't live then, I've experienced that place, that time period through my story and research.

As writers (and readers) we get to be "six" before we even turn "four," or visit London in 1868, or rescue a runaway stage out West. I think that's one of the cool things about being a writer - how real our stories, our characters, our settings can become.