Everything Happens For A Reason

Everything happens for a reason. 


I'm not going to get religious, or too philosophical. That's for another place and time, perhaps.

But I feel that everything you go through and learn is getting you ready for something. 

You can learn from everything in life. 

I do art, writing, play drums and other artistic outlets. Throughout my life, as well. And now I'm utilizing all of it to fast track my way into what I want to do. 

See I've been a procrastinator. And that's OK. Dean Koontz says to wait until your somewhere around your 30s to write a novel. You have more experience. Yeah, that's definitely true. But there are still possibilies for anything, and everyone, at any age. 

The question is how bad do you want it? 

I want to write. I want to create stories that alow someone to escape. I know how that feels, growing up in the Bronx. My mom passed when I was young, thirteen I believe. Crazy things happened. 

I write horror. 

Thankfully I never used drugs. I did drink for a very short period, but I stayed to myself for the most part. 

And now I can draw on each event that happened to me growing up. Is it hard having lived that? Yes, very. But each event shaped the way I think and how I see things. 

It can be different for you, but whatever it is, your experience has been preparing you for that special thing without you even knowing. Utilize that knowledge. 

Even at work! 

I worked in retail, and I was able to learn stamina and how to accept and use difficult situations. The constant grind, day in and day out. People who don't care two bits about you. 

I worked in a funeral home; thought I was to be just reception, but I did more than that. The extra things turned out to be a lot more. Nothing too nuts, but your average teen might not have done it. Had an interesting nightmare the first day, too. Thus I write horror.

Now I work in corporate. No, I'm not in the upper rung of things, but there is still the stress and having every day to swallow my pride and get up and work for a paycheck that allows my family and I to survive. And for me to write without starving. 

Twelve years there... And it has taught me a lot. How to deal with people. How to be professional and know where to deviate from those rules. And it has taught me responsibility. 

All of these things I use when in my real career. Writing. The art work I use for visuals for my site and YouTube channel. 

Creativity for the videos I plan on putting up. All the things I've researched will be put to use in stories and on a show I do on the YouTube channel. 

I've even done some work for a publisher illustrating and editing two of his anthologies. And now I know these skills, too. 

Sometimes you may not get paid, you have to give a sample to get noticed. But it will come if you want it bad enough.

Work hard, learn from everything, and put out your best. 

Make it count. 

What has shaped who you are, or what you would like to be? Has it hampered your endeavors, or pushed you forward into better things? 

Let me know in the comments section below, or on Twitter @WCMarchese 

Hope to see you there. 

WCM

And Stop by the YouTube channel and let me know what you think. It's new, not a lot is up yet. But, as they say, the best is yet to come.


Comments

Renee Miller said…
Going to give you a very long answer to your question. Ready?

There are so many things in my life that have made me who I am today, both good and bad, that I have to agree that most things happen for a reason. If not for some really bad relationship choices, I'd still have shit self-esteem. I wouldn't have learned to stand up for myself or to take chances. I'd definitely never have shared my writing. For a long time, writing was a private/secret thing I did just for me, because I never imagined I'd ever be "good enough" for someone else to even want to read it. I still wrestle with self-doubt sometimes, but not for long and it's easier to push it aside. ;)

Life experience has also shaped what I write. Horror just seemed like a logical genre for me, because it examines those dark places we avoid. For example, growing up, we had very little money. We were still happy, for the most part, despite wearing second-hand clothes and eating things like mustard sandwiches because it wasn't payday and that's all that was left in the house. (Remember when bread was cheap? Sigh) My parents battled alcoholism and abuse for years, before they got to a point where they were both healthy and happy, and the shit from their pasts wasn't making them terrible to each other. I was sixteen before I saw what a stable home looked like (although I always knew I was loved). As dark as it seemed sometimes, that childhood struggle helped me understand that no situation is ever black and white or as simple as right or wrong. It definitely influenced how I develop the characters in my stories. In horror, the ability to see and explore those grey areas is important. And I know what it's like to have pretty much nothing, so a writer's income is something I can work with.

I actually wrote a fictionalized memoir (had to put some killing that never happened in to make it more exciting) as a writing exercise. It won't be published, because it's depressing and no one wants to read that shit, but it made me realize how much of the good parts of who I am developed because of bad or negative experiences. So, as much as I didn't enjoy those parts of my life, they were worth it to be where I am now.

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