Day # 75 - Write Now!

Sometimes a traumatic event can reveal a talent or an ability. I am not suggesting that I have either. But I never wrote until I got divorced. I became a father at 19, my second son was born just before I turned 21 and my wife left me just after I turned 22. My older son was in New York and now I had nothing. I was 22 years old, barely more than a boy, and missing my boys so much I wished for death and considered doing it myself.

Instead, I wrote. I started writing poems. Day after day, I wrote. Short poems, long poems, haiku, I just wrote. Some rhymed, some didn't some were dark and serious, others were silly or romantic. All were heartfelt and all were therapy. Eventually, I graduated to short stories. I wrote dozens of those, and tons of essays. My collection now includes six feature-length screenplays, five novels, and this endless blog you are reading.

Guess what? I didn't commit suicide. Yes, I know that's obvious since I am not writing this via Ouija board, but the greater point is that writing allowed me a constructive way to release the pain I was feeling from missing my sons, and having a failed marriage. I shared some of my work with friends. I had one friend in particular who would want to hear new poems as I completed them. This was a great self-esteem boost.

I picked myself up, got my G.E.D.and enrolled in college. I went back to reading books with a vengeance. At this point, I was nearly 25 years old and I knew I was behind schedule. I never finished college, but by 27, I had my first management job. I am now (12 years later) a director, working at an executive level overseeing sales and marketing for two hotels and a restaurant. I am responsible for creating revenue so people can keep their jobs, I am a well-known and (hopefully) well-liked, respected member of my community. I have successfully run my own business and non profit organizations. I am on a first-name basis with elected officials and public figures (please don't hold that against me.)

Why do I tell you this? I am not bragging. I don't expect you to be impressed with this because I am not impressed with it. But it's not bad for a a Cuban-Arab-Euro-African-American kid from Hialeah. And why was I able to do this? Because I chose to write. I chose to use the gift God blessed me with. I chose to express myself.

A lot of people who knew me then don't recognize me now. The ex-wife who so brutally dumped me has told me repeatedly that she made a mistake. Her mistake was youth. It's hard to see into the future when you've barely any past. Nevertheless, that ship has sailed and she'll never come aboard again.

So now, at 39 years old, I am at a crossroads. I found myself in a bit of a rut. I had pursued writing for about ten years. Never found and agent. (Well, I found hundreds of them, none of whom wanted to rep me.) I was unwilling to become a waiter in order to pursue my grander ambitions. I am a capitalist, but with a decidedly artistic bent. If, during the last 17 years, you woke me up at 3:00AM and asked me what I wanted to do with my life, I would have told you to get the hell out of my house. Seriously, I would have answered, "I want to write. I want to speak publicly. I want to reach people."

I decided to start this blog and the project it chronicles to better myself and it has had unintended consequences, all of which have been positive. I have now written for 75 days straight, which is remarkable. Don't think so? Try it! Maybe this is God's way of making me work the fat out of my soul (as Hemingway put it.) I know I am becoming more aware of the world around me because I spend every today thinking about what I will write tomorrow. I go to bed having no idea what the topic will be and wake up with something rolling around upstairs. That's how today happened. I have no idea about tomorrow, but this is the beauty of what I'm doing. It's like driving for the sake of driving. I have no idea where I'll be when I run out of gas, but it doesn't matter, because getting there is all the fun.

The lesson today is to find your talent, find what makes you happy, and pursue it. Not at the expense of your well-being or of your family's security, but if you have not yet started your family, this is the time to chase the dream, to drive until you're out of gas.

God bless you. May He protect and guide you as you pursue your dreams. And make it your best day yet.

- Adolfo


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