I came close to failure.

Two summers ago I was working for a company I should have run away from, but the pay and the prestige of it on my resume… somewhere in my head I thought it was worth it.

It wasn’t. 

In fact, it was the biggest mistake of my working career. Three months after I took the position I was released. No severance. No back up job.

Jobless, physically and mentally exhausted, I felt I was at rock bottom.

Two weeks later I started a dead end tanning salon job to make ends meet. I told myself I did it to survive. I still tell myself that. I am at a point in my life where I am comfortable in my job, maybe even considered successful. I’m settling though, I can feel it.

During the six or so months I was with the tanning salon I wasted so much spare time on a get-rich-quick scheme. I wish I had used that time better.

I wish I used that time to do this.

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I felt I belonged.

-JK Rowling Very Good Lives

This quote, so small compared to the rest of her speech, one might overlook it. This quote reminds me that I can still pursue my dream career-being a writer.

Whether that is writing a novel, short story collection, articles, blogs, whatever it may be; I can succeed at it. It may be small, but it is a victory.

A victory of keeping the small commitment to myself.