Another Girl at Play - Women Artists Making Creative Dreams Real

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The most recent newsletter is displayed to your right and the archives below begin from oldest to newest.

APRIL 2002

Last April, I left the Corporate World to pursue my dream of freelance writing. At the time, I was overwhelmed, insecure and completely unsure of "how to be a writer." The fear of failing, not being good enough or never figuring it all was with me every day. Yet despite the fears, I somehow had enough trust in my writing ability to live out my dream and believed that somehow, someway, I'd manage to actually pull off this whole creativity thing if I just try hard enough.

One year later, I know I was right.

The journey from Corporate Executive to Freelance Writer has been, at times, long and hard but it has also been rewarding, amazing and brilliant. I began as an unsure writer who has transformed not only into a successfully freelance writer but also an artist. I've written for magazines, sold art and now writing book proposals. With nothing more than a simple dream, trust in myself and lots of hard work, the dream I had one year ago is now a working reality.

All of us get ideas in our heads of things we'd like to do. Some of us do them and some of us don't. I often ask myself what makes some act on their ideas while others just keep their ideas, ideas? To answer this, I went and re-read every profile on the Another Girl at Play website.

When I look back over what each artist had said, I learned no one had magical powers that allowed them to go out on their own. No one had a million dollars to finance their lifestyle. Nobody had assistants or armies of workers who did the work for them. And not one of these women was ever handed their dream in its entirety. In fact, each of these women seemed to posses a great deal of fear and insecurity in the beginning. Money seemed scarce, as did knowledge of how to run a business. And often these women were equipped with nothing more than an idea. The only thing that allowed each of them to follow their hearts and live out their dream was that they trusted themselves just enough to do something.

Even though they each had fear of starting their journey, even though they all had struggles to overcome and many things to learn, somewhere inside them they held enough belief that they could do what they wanted to if they just tried. And you know what? They were right.

Sometimes trusting ourselves is the hardest thing to do - climbing Mount Everest can at times seem easier. But I believe when we get an idea in our hearts, that it's put there for a reason. It's up to us to trust it and ourselves, and act on it as best we can. Because it is possible, fear or not.