Graduation (written in 2018)

Graduations are exciting. You graduate from high school, or trade school, or college, and it's an accomplishment! It's a big deal! You have achieved the goal that you set out for yourself.

But graduations are not only the achievement of a goal, they are a start to new challenges. Graduation is when you have learned the bare minimum needed in order to start on actual work.

These are the thoughts that I have going around in my head as I complete the work on my first full length, published and available to the public book (Kansem 1: The Reaffirmation).

Of course my first thought is "WOW! My first book is finished! I’ve written a complete book, beginning, middle, and end. And some people actually like it! I have it typeset, and it’s been printed into a book, with front matter, copyright, the works. I published it on Amazon and I’m letting the world see my work."

But it's like graduating. I’m graduating from writer to author. And just like graduating high school or college, now is when the real work begins. I have the basic knowledge, and I’ve shown that I have some skill. So the next step is to use it. I have to keep writing, and keep producing, and keep improving. Now I’m expected to not only write, but also be good. Granted, as a self-published author, these are mostly just the expectations I have for myself, but they are no less daunting for that.

So here I am at the end of my journey to published author. I've achieved the goal. And I find, like everyone else, that graduation isn’t the end of the journey, it's just the beginning.