Sometimes you never know where your inspiration might come from. As I began to put together this post, I ran across a blog that offered 105 ideas to blog. There were two that caught my attention. The first one, What 5 things would you buy if you won a million dollars; the second, leave a cliffhanger and answer on another post. Intriguing, but that seemed a little unfair.
So as I was contemplating the five things I would buy if I had a million dollars. The list is fairly routine:
1. Pay off my only daughter’s school loans and provide her with a plane ticket any time she wanted to come home to visit. (She is an Integrated Services Coordinator, i.e., Special Education team leader in East Palo Alto County. I live in Oklahoma.)
2. I’d pay off my mother’s debt too. (I think by then 2/3 of my million may be obliterated)
3. Next I think I might build my dream house — and have my apartment downtown during NBA season. (I’m a season ticket holder, you know.)
4. Now I’m pretty sure I’m down to my last 200k. I’d better put half in savings.
5. The last 100k I would use for marketing, which is what inspired the title of my post. . .
People like me rarely become millionaires. In fact, there are so many people like me that we get lost in the shuffle. Let me explain.
When my daughter (who is now 33) was two, her father and I divorced. For the most part, it was an amiable split. I did not feel guilty. We were young when we married. He was a hothead. He loved his daughter but was more concerned with “the other woman” and his business. He remarried right away. That, too, was not an issue for me. Obviously, I was ready to strike out on my own. However, I had a young child. And he decided his $300 / month child support was too much.
He offered to sign over all rights to me, in order not to pay. I declined. I was not married, nor was I looking to remarry at the time. So he decided not to pay anyway.
There you have it. I was a single parent, no college degree (at the time). But I was a responsible mom. I always managed a job of some sort. I paid my rent, my day care, my car payment. I struggled to buy groceries. Trips to Blockbuster and the book store was our frequent entertainment. I lived in Dallas at the time. Not necessarily the least expensive place in the world, but, one managed. And I did. We did. You see, my daughter and I were a team. This theme is very prevalent in my latest release LIES THAT BIND.
We did not have a million dollars. We had each other. There were times I worked two jobs to make ends meet. We did not get on Oprah. (I love Oprah). We didn’t make the news. Because, like so many others, we were the norm. Hardworking, bill-paying, but with our dreams on hold.
I am an artsy person. I love to sing, I’ve done some community theater acting, and . . . I write romance. My destiny. Nothing in my life has come easy, which I suspect, makes me very appreciative of my accomplishments. (Like getting my college degree at age 39. Working up the nerve to singing in front of people at age 34.) These may not seem like much, but they were huge milestones to me. Insurmountable. And while I pray you enjoy what I so desperately need to fill my soul, I love that I am finally grasping my dreams.
Dreams no longer on hold.
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