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Are You Following Your Dream?

When I was a junior in high school my dad bought a HUGE book that listed all the colleges in the USA and had endless listings about what you could declare as a major. (Actually, I think he bought a couple of these books!) There was a lot of talk around the dinner table about where I was going to go to college and what I’d study.

ONE time flipping through that book and I knew exactly what I wanted:

061416-UofATo study Creative Writing and to do it at the University of Arizona.

(The fact that U of A is in Tucson where I had a family was a plus. The fact that Dad graduated from there and I’d been raised a Wildcat was a huge bonus!)

I went through the last two years of high school knowing exactly where I was going to college and what I was going to study. When my friends were deciding if college was even something on their radar, I knew what I was going to do.

I knew.

I was moving in the direction of my dreams, taking a powerful action to someday become an Author.

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But here’s the weirdest thing…

All those friends who were undecided majors (or even undecided about college at all) got lots of approval and feedback from adults. Teachers and other adults alike would look at my peers and offer endless encouragement to pursue their dreams; go to college and find out what you want.

You want to know what they told me when they found out I was majoring in Creative Writing?

“What’s your backup plan?”

I kid you not! That’s what they said to me, over and over. Not “Great job to follow your dreams, Kim!” but “What’s your backup plan?”


So let’s fast forward fifteen years:

Today I not only am an author (16 books written and published) but I’m also a Best Selling author, have been published in numerous other publications, and actually make money from my writing!

And I help other people to make the leap into being authors too.

Here’s the moral of the story though:

061416-BookoftheUniverseI never listened to the underlying current of… WHATEVER that was behind the “backup plan” question. I never really cared that anybody thought I was nuts to study writing, to get a degree in it, to pursue my dream. I would confidently inform them that I really didn’t NEED a backup plan, Plan A was going to work fine, thank you very much.

And every time since then, when I’ve taken the leap of faith and moved toward my dreams, it HAS always worked out perfectly. That’s not to say it wasn’t without its moments of fear or worry. But it always worked out.

So what dream are you not following?

Since you’re part of the New Frontier Books’ family, I’m pretty sure that it’s around writing your book and sharing your message. That something in there has you listening to the sub context for the “backup plan” people in your life.

Stop it!

Take the leap and go after your dream of touching lives with your writing. Let’s go for it!

BTW: My dad was and always has been my biggest supporter for majoring in Creative Writing and he never ONCE asked about a backup plan! I’m pretty sure he was relieved, however, when I graduated with a degree in both Creative Writing and Spanish.

Kim Galloway
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