Like so many teen idealists, I wanted to change the world when I was in high school. Since my skills and interests were in math and biology, I decided to become a biomedical engineer. To help people, I was going to cure diseases or develop better prosthetics or design better implants.
Although I did become a biomedical engineer--both in education and job--things didn't turn out that way. When I was thinking about trading that career for one as an author, one of the biggest obstacles was the feeling that writing fiction was a selfish career. After all, what was writing YA fantasy books compared to curing cancer (not that I was doing this as a biomedical engineer)?
But here's the thing: books help people. Maybe not as directly as a cure or treatment for a disease, but they do help people. The following quote helps me remember that when I'm feeling like I'm selfish for writing books that amuse me instead of toiling in the lab, trying to cure diseases (which again, I only ever kind of did during my half-decade career in the pharmaceutical industry--ymmv). It reminds me that if I help even one person, then my writing is more than just something that amuses me. It's something that helped someone too. Which was always my goal, even as an idealistic teen.
"But if one kid out of a hundred million
Who are going through a struggle feels and then relates that's great"
From "The Monster" by Eminem ft. Rihanna (explicit).
Need extra motivation this week? Check out last week's Motivation Monday.
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