We all have “the list.” You know. The list of things we want to be when we grow up. Then we grow up. The list changes. Along with the ideas we have of who we are, what we’re doing and what everything means. Because we’re adults, right? We’re supposed to know the answers by now. Uh, huh? Right.
There’s another list though, or group of things. Whatever you’d like to call it. Ideas that hang out in our peripherals. Just on the fringe of what we think is important. On our “back-burner”. Those are our “someday” things. I find those are the things that should really matter. Those are the things that should get put on high heat. Things that boil over and instead of just flooding the kitchen with smoke, spread and have a positive impact. One we may never have knowledge or see the evidence of in our lifetime. On our children, showing them, they really can (and should) follow their dreams. On my family, who may know I’m slightly off my rocker, but still have great things to give. To anyone else or everyone else, across the interwebs or who I may meet in person. They can have a better view of what they want or what should be important through the Sumday Project. They may even share in some of their own.
My list was a short one. I had a career for twenty-plus years that fulfilled the fantasy I had when I was three. It was this mindset that helped me accomplish many things I wanted to do. Be a soldier, fly helicopters, run ultra-marathons, build my shop, do the artwork I enjoyed and inspired me. The one that caught me off guard, however, was writing. I never thought I wanted to be a writer.
If you’ve read the blog, you know I started writing stories that were “colorful” when I was young, but here I am. Older. With stories in my head that just keep growing. I read somewhere to “write the story you want to read”. That simple statement was all it took. Now that’s grown into manuscripts and from that the travels and commentary laid out on this page, because it’s hard to write about somewhere you’ve never set your feet, or felt with your own two hands. This experience will help morph the manuscript into a book worthy of publication.
All of this, and more, is at the heart of The Sumday Project. All those ideas, imagination, humor and effort have to add up to something. Should add up to something. I’m about making that happen. Not someday. Today.
