The End

Why does watching “Inside the Actors Studio” always make me want to write? It doesn’t make me want to act, but write. (But not scripts. I hate writing scripts).
I’m watching the episode where Dave Chapell is interviewing James Lipton (no, I don’t have it backwards. Highly recommend watching it). They were talking about “What did you want to be when you were 13?”

I thought about what I wanted to be. I think by then I knew I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a writer for most of my life. I’m not sure why I never studied it in college (but that is for a therapy session sometime in the future).
At first glance, my thought, is: I never did become a writer. Never actually wrote a book, not even one that went unpublished. Never had an article printed. Even my personal journals have months/years missing.
But taking a second look - maybe I’m thinking too traditional. When I was 13, the word “blog” didn’t even exist. So lets alter my thinking a little. What did I want out of being a writer? Did I achieve it?

First - have I been published? Thanks to the Google company, yes. My blog. Which is the answer to almost all the other goals. Strangers have read my writing. Some friends and strangers have told me the enjoy my writing or tell me they like the way I write. I’ve had published writers (printed-paper published, that is) write to me about my writing - which absolutely thrills me!

Next goal: I’ve been able to tell my side of the story, or what it is like to be me, and my opinions of things, and what my part of the world is like - what is going on around me. What the world was like in this particular time period.
The Diary of Anne Frank was a big influence on me growing up (on more than a few ways, but I’ll stick to only the topic at hand). As an adolescent, I wondered what it would be like if my diary were to be published. Most of these blog entries are journalesque-like. But as an introvert, I held some things back, keeping in mind it could be read by anyone right after hitting the ‘publish post’ button.

Making Moolah?
I’ve never been paid for anything I’ve written. I’m not sure if that was one of the goals. One idea was having money so I could just write and not have to do anything else. The money didn’t have to come by way of my writings in particular. Marry rich, win the lottery, whatever, so I could just concentrate on writing. Nowadays I’m just trying to concentrate. On anything! :)
So would the 13 year old me say, “Yes, you have done what you wanted, you became a writer”?
I’m still not sure, but I think there is a possibility of yes in there. Somewhere.