Every day is a school day

I’ve written a novel. And along with 14 other incredibly talented authors I’m attending a three-month course with a noted literary agency to make it better and hopefully get it published one day. It’s loosely based on a relationship I had around twenty years ago (many of us are using something that happened in our lives to create the base of our story.) This relationship impacted me for a long time, but writing is my therapy, (after all that’s why I tend to write these blogs) and it was quite a moment when I realised that I’ve exorcised the demons of that relationship past. 

I was speaking with a friend yesterday after a new relationship I thought could go somewhere hasn’t / won’t. Now, when this happened I was naturally upset, but us women are from Venus, so we talk it through with our friends to lift us out of the so-called well. And my friend suggested that because I’ve written the book and because my head is clearer I finally managed to let someone get close, which is traditionally very difficult for me to do. So, this is a good thing right?

And while I can’t deny that I enjoyed the time with the recent one there were amber flags waving right in front of me. I chose to ignore them. I got so swept up in the fun and feeling nice to be part of ‘something’ that I hadn’t realised I was compromising what I want from a relationship. And he wasn’t delivering on that. While compromise is always needed, that compromise has to work both ways.

In a similar way to what I do after each class on the writing course I sat down and listed what I learned from this relationship, and through that, what I need from any future ones. And I’m confident for the first time in a long time that there will be future ones – this was just a practice run! But next time, I’ll keep an eye out for those flags and deal with accordingly. That’s what I’ve learned.

Learning comes in different ways, be that a writing course or a relationship, it’s about taking everything and using it to make your mind and life better in the future. Every day is a school day!