Dream Big 14

My how time does fly, it seems as though summer is nearly over and fall is creeping around the corner. I have been busy these past few weeks with trying to squeeze the last bit of sunny weather things in before I start preparing for cooler weather. I love the days of summer, but I anticipate with great happiness the coming of fall festivities. After a lot of hard work and planning I am hoping to reach some of my goals before the end of the year. I'm heading in the right direction and am paving the road to success. Of course my writing is at an all time slow pace, and my modeling is going at a much faster pace, so between the two of them I'm trying to keep up. I need to get started again with working on my third book of my series, but time has not allowed for it. There is a lot more involved with doing photo shoots and submitting finished images to magazines than I had anticipated, but all of the hard work on that front has paid off. I've been published thus far in nine different publications, and a tentative count of another ten or so coming out within the next few months. I have even managed to be on a back cover of one of those magazines, and I hope to one day grace a front cover. This journey to stardom has been an incredible one. I have made many new friends who are truly amazing, and I even feel so lucky to have made friends with others whom I look up to. (You know who you are.) I couldn't have come this far without the help of the talented photographers I've been so lucky to model for, and those around me who have believed in me through it all. This column is dedicated to you, because if it weren't for you all I wouldn't be where I am today. Although I am yet to be a paid model, it is a goal of mine to make that happen one day. I love what I do, it has been a life changing experience. I have more self confidence than I ever had before, even when I'm feeling down. I have met wonderful people, and have had the opportunity to work with some of the best photographers in East Tennessee. I have also been lucky enough to meet some wonderful magazines editors, and have even written a few articles for some of them. This experience has allowed for me to not only feel like a new person, but more like a positive role model for my children. I never wanted my kids to follow in my footsteps, I have only wanted the best for them and for them to create their own hopes and dreams. I want them to see that through hard work and perseverance, no matter how hard, or out of reach their goals seems to be that they never give up, or stop trying. No matter what I will not give up on my hopes and dreams so that they see it can happen for them as it has for me. I know the past several columns I've written has been quite gloomy, and downright depressing, after releasing all of my sorrows out of the box, but that's how I have felt. I have had a rough few months at my job causing undo stress with my finances, and I have been under fire with scammers trying to trick me in various ways to believe whatever they were trying to scam money out of me that I don't have to lose. I also have had my hopes crushed with several more rejections from either agents, or editors for my manuscript, but I'm not going to give up yet on my dream of being a traditionally published author. I've even had rejections for my modeling submissions, or have still yet to hear any positive news from a few of the major magazines I've submitted to, but I'm still crossing my fingers. I'm not going to give up, because there's still hope at the bottom of the box. Time really has gone by fast, it's hard to believe that this is the fourteenth Dream Big column. Where has all the time gone? The real question is, when in time will all this lead? Will it be today, or will it be tomorrow? I don't have an answer right now, I wish I could look into my future and see where I end up. The journey is only half of the destination, and I plan to go the distance. I will walk softly and carry big dreams, but after it is all said and done I will have created my own destiny, and dreamed big.