Since I made the final call to self-publish my novel, the last couple of months have been quite a whirlwind! And now, we’re a week out from Summer Breakdown’s release! I can’t wait. I feel both very scared and very ready. But, lately, my feelings are more consistently on the side of READY.

The love, support, and encouragement I’ve felt from various communities has made me feel so grateful. I am grateful people believe in me, that people want to see me succeed, that people care enough to pay attention even in the slightest to what I’m writing and creating.

My friend Kristin interviewed me today for her podcast and we talked about going after your dreams. How, basically, it’s not just passion and hard work you put in, it’s actually giving yourself permission to go after what you want. I know it’s not as easy as just saying, “Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and do XYZ now,” it’s really not.

Choosing yourself and your dreams is hard work in and of itself. It means prioritizing yourself over the millions of other tasks and to-dos waiting for you. Begging for you. It means pressing on even in the face of failure. It means pouring your mind, body, heart, and soul into whatever it is you want to do because it’s a piece of you, and that can feel mentally and emotionally draining at times.

It isn’t easy. At all.

But it’s an adventure. A learning experience. A joy!

And it doesn’t have to feel “easy” necessarily, because when it feels worth it—no matter what—that’s when you know you have something you’ve got to hold onto.

For some reason, I had the audacity to believe in my dream. And then to believe I deserved to go after it.

And then I had the audacity to believe I was worthy of people’s support in the pursuit of my dream.

And now, I have the audacity to believe that it’s okay to ask people to invest in my dream.

I hope you, too, have the audacity to believe in your dreams. I’ll be cheering you on!

I can’t do this without you. THANK YOU.