Unselfish

Back deck writing this evening, Hyro still the soundtrack to my life.

I decided at 11pm last night that since I’ve opted to more earnestly pursue getting paid to write, that meant I was looking at basically working two jobs. How’s that for a concept? My second job will be getting paid to write? Huh. Cool.

I submitted several proposals through a couple websites last night before this realization hit, and did some research on how to go about this whole paid writing bit. It’s definitely doable. So I decided at 11pm that I needed to start acting like I’m working two jobs.

I needed to start getting up early again.

For awhile now, with the kids not in school and me just having to worry about getting to work on time, I haven’t really been adhering to a decent sleep schedule – waking sometimes closer to 8am during the week, not going to bed until midnight or 1am.

If I’m going to do this – and don’t mistake the if, I totally am going to do this – I need to treat it like what it is, and start using my time more responsibly.

So, I set my alarm for 530am.

Now, we all know that shit didn’t work well, but I did successfully wake at 604am and get out of bed. So that’s a definite improvement. I did some shit around the house, checked the writing job boards, submitted a couple more proposals. . . and at 837am got a return message about one of them.

I literally could feel my legs shaking, and had to sit down. That fucking quick, huh?

Unfortunately the job had a deadline with in the next couple of hours, and didn’t pay enough to warrant me calling off of work for, so I had to turn it down.

But I mean. . . that’s cool, too. I can pick and choose what I put my time and effort into? Stop. Is this real life right now?

I went to my day job, and dealt with that holy clusterfuck. It was definitnely a Monday all fucking day today.

Maybe someday in the near future I can write that chapter out of my life, but for now I worked my eight hours grudgingly, not wanting to be there and not at all amused with the random shit that kept popping up to keep me from being productive. I did have a couple bright spots in my day through interactions with my residents, but otherwise. . . yeah. Not impressed with the day.

I came home and got dinner cooking, and then finished working on a small piece that I wanted to submit to a website while the water boiled for pasta. In the time it took the pasta to cook I finished the piece, edited it, and submitted it.

Fingers crossed.

It’s game on though now, guys. I’ve decided this is what I want, and it will happen. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week. I’m not naive enough to think that I’m going to get a hit on my first submission, or second or third. . . but eventually I will. And then the sky is the limit.

While I have full intentions to regularly submit work to various places, I don’t intend to ignore So, This is Real Life. This is what has fed this hunger of mine for four years now, it’s where I rediscovered my voice and what has helped me heal in so many ways, from so many different things. So look forward to me continuing the quote posts and whatever else may strike me as needing to be written.

For today’s quote post:

“Unselfish and noble acts are the most radiant epochs in the biography of souls.” – David Thomas

The most important things that are remembered about people is the moments when they were kind, and selfless. They aren’t remembered because the went into battle – they’re remembered for the reason they went into battle. That’s what speaks about who you are as a person. People don’t always remember you for what you did – they remember you for how you made them feel.

Sure, lots of people get remembered for being shitty. But the best stories? They’re about people who were noble and unselfish.

It’s taking the high road in shitty situations.

It’s the people who are peacefully protesting against the shit they see wrong in the world. It’s the war heroes, not fighting for accolades, but fighting for your freedom and mine and for those who don’t have the means to fight. It’s the woman who is a sanctuary for her abused friend, even though it implicates her and puts her in harms way. It’s the people who stand up against bullies, its the people who speak for the people who can’t. It’s doctors who go to work every day and don’t know what they’re bringing home to their families. It’s not always a physical battle, sometimes its a mental and emotional one, an unseen battle. And these are the people who will be remembered favorably. These are the people stories will be written about and movies made about.

And sometimes it’s ugly to fight these battles, physical or not. But at the end of the day, how amazing must it feel to know that you are doing good in the world?

And the really important thing is that these individuals don’t even realize that what they’re doing is a big deal. I think that’s the best thing about it, really. They’re just doing what they feel they need to do – they don’t care about recognition.

If you’re going to be anything in this world, be that. Be unselfish and noble, be the person who is remembered for making people feel good about themselves, be the person who fights for those who can’t fight for themself. We need more of that in this world.