I'm sitting here in my library right now, and I repeatedly finding myself just staring around the room, still giddy at having been able to realize a dream I had for many years now. And even in lieu of the holy-crap-is-this-the-most-fantastic-collection-ever sense of awe I had at the Billy Ireland Library and Museum, that I'm able to do something even remotely capable of being called a comics library makes me inordinately happy.
And within the sphere of comics writing, I usually just sit off in my own little corner, banging away on my keyboard. I don't have a lot of interaction with other folks about my ideas, so I'm left to assume that I'm shouting at the wind. But being able to write an academic level textbook about webcomics, and having that nominated for an Eisner Award last year? I can't tell you how far beyond any dreams I might've had growing up that is. And I'm sitting on a semi-related announcement that will be made in early 2023 that would equally have blown my teenage mind.
I wonder sometimes what my teenaged self would think of current me. I suspect there'd be some level of disappointment at not being professionally employed in an expressly creative field and having instead "sold out" to "the man." But being an award-nominated writer, having run several marathons, being an extra in an Avengers movie (that there even IS an Avengers movie!), having a smart home more advanced that the one Bill Gates ostensibly had in the 1980s when I first heard of the idea, surviving a lightning strike, literally saving the life of a drowning cousin, being able to 3D print almost anything I want out of my utility closet... Fifteen-year-old me would probably not even come close to recognizing current me; what I've been able to do in my life, both in terms of the technology at my disposal as well as my personal skills and talents, is well beyond whatever I might've dreamed of doing. I've never had a formal "Bucket List" but if I had, I would've had to re-write it several times over with the number of Bucket-List-level items I would've checked off.
My wife is in the kitchen now working on what I have no doubt will be a delicious Thanksgiving meal. While I'd love to be able to go for a quiet run afterwards, getting hit by an SUV a few years ago put a damper on that; however, that my body was able to take that much damage and still be able to walk or even run (to a limited degree) is absolutely incredible. There is seemingly no end of awful things going on in the world right now and there are no doubt many more to come. But I am thankful for where I am personally in my life. The friends I have, the things I've been able to achieve (or were priveleged/lucky enough to stumle into!), the safety net I've been able to craft for when things do go sideways... I remain thankful for everything I have.
2 comments:
Surviving a lightning strike? So there's a lot more in this post, but man, that one kind of sticks out.
What's weird is that you don't realize what happened until well after the fact because A) it happens so fast and B) it looks radically different from a 1st person perspective than any 3rd person photo or film you've ever seen. It's only in looking around at the remaining evidence that you can retroactively sort out what happened.
Post a Comment