Getting started: better late than never – Welcome Guest Rosalie Spielman
Getting started: better late than never – Rosalie Spielman
I turned 49 recently. I’ve seen a few times in the last couple months videos of people saying “did you know we are closer to 2070 than 1970” and their reactions are right in line with my own. My count down these days, instead of being when I can strut into a bar or sit behind a steering wheel, is how long until we can move into one of those 55+ communities?
Have you realized kids today don’t know what a dial tone is?
Several months ago, an old friend/fellow mil spouse contacted me about sharing photos of my creative space. Leslie’s an amazing artist and has her own studio now. I shared photos with her and on Leslie’s Instagram story, I recognized other military wives. That’s when it occurred to me: we were all women over forty. I also have a friend from high school made her love of sewing into a life’s calling and started a clothing business. Another military spouse owns a quilt store. And another started medical school at thirty-five and is now a PA.
So, why were we all making changes in career and goals, older? Why did we all wait? It’s not that our nests were empty—all of these friends and myself had kids at home still.
I was a military spouse for 24 years. For military spouses, unless you are in a portable field, like nursing or teaching, it’s hard to maintain a career with normal progression due to all the moves. But then our service member retires and we are finally allowed to stay in one spot. Starting a career that late is possible, but difficult. But I don’t think it is that.
Fear of impending death can be a motivator. But I don’t think it’s that either. I mean, I come from good Swiss stock. I’ve got a good fifty years to go. Maybe sixty, if I hydrate better.
Sudden growth in confidence? Mmm, no. I will be the first to admit that writing can be a soul-crushing confidence destroyer. Not a day goes by that I don’t feel some serious imposter syndrome.
My husband, a golfer, said “You miss 100 percent of the putts you don’t take.” I think he paraphrased that from somewhere, but regardless, I saw his point. Getting a book published isn’t just about the great dialogue that magically comes to you in the shower, or knowing how to spell “Punxsutawney,” but starting. I was certainly never going to get published if I didn’t try. Thinking about it, or wishing, or dreaming, wasn’t going to make it happen. Maybe that’s what my friends realized as well.
And so, I started. And in the hard times, when self-doubt raised its stupid head, the thing that kept me going was my absolute favorite quote in my Big Book of Motivation, where I stick memes, quotes, and pictures. My favorite quote isn’t Winston Churchill or Carrie Fisher, but rather, my daughter. She snuck in a little message for me to find later, in her little fifth grade scrawl atop one of the pictures:
“I love you mom, keep trying!”“I love you mom, keep trying!”
So, there it is. I did what she encouraged me to do. There is a powerful motivation in wanting to show your children that you can achieve if you try. So that is why I kept trying—and perhaps why I started in the first place.
Readers: What is the thing your self-doubt says you can’t do? And what are you waiting for?
Bio: Rosalie Spielman is a mother, veteran, and retired military spouse. She was thrilled to discover that she could make other people laugh with her writing and finds joy in giving people a humorous escape from the real world. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband and four creatures—two teens and two fur babies. For more information on her books or to subscribe to her newsletter, go to www.rosalie-spielman-author.com
Welcome Home to Murder, the first in the Hometown Mysteries series, was released in June. Death on a Cliff, Rosalie’s second contribution to the multi-author Aloha Lagoon series, will be released on 9 August. You can find order and preorder links via her Amazon author page or website.
Amazon profile link: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B09FP95WC8
