20 Adventures from my 20s: #12

I feel fortunate, accomplished, and on the right track, in general with life. But I can't say that I feel more accomplished or successful than the average person, or even the below-average person. Maybe this is because most of my friends are equally and moreso in the fields of education, travel and profession. But being an artistic type, I do feel proud, and accomplished, for

SEEING MY WRITING BEING PERFORMED IN MANHATTAN

I write. It's just what I've always done. I write for me, I write for others, I write when I'm bored, I write for the hell of it. I write without thinking. I have files and files and files and folders and folders and folders and notebooks and notebooks and notebooks of neverending writings; journals, short stories, ideas, articles, anything. I'm always writing something.

Occasionally, I try to submit things places. I don't do this often, because I don't often actually finish a project. But I had been writing a lot and I was in New York City, and so I started looking around for a few places to send stuff.

I had forgotten about the submission when I was told that it was accepted. As the author, I was invited to the performance at the literary legend KGB Bar to watch the live performance. It was pretty surreal. I felt like a Very Important Person. I had a table reserved at the front. My name was there. Pictures were taken of me. People complimented me afterwards. And all inside this historic bar. I remember thinking Wow, I'm in the New York literary scene for a night!

Of course my name was misspelled. Of course.

It was pretty magical, and I still count it as one of my top honors, one my favorite achievements for a night. And a few short years later, I would even make my first money from a story ($50 baby!) so small baby steps, small accomplishments growing. But that first night, which was mixed art and involved an actress, and an audience (and let's face it, attention) was beautiful!