Ha ha got you! I bet you thought I was going to talk about how wise and deliciously intelligent I am, but I’m not! Today, I’m going to tell you about the wisdom of another Emily. Specifically, Ms. Emily Henderson, who won last years Next Design Star competition.
via Emily Henderson Style
As you know, I am a big supporter of Emilys so when one of our kind won a Design Show I was psyched. Obviously I immediately had to start following her blog and sending her lunatic tweets. I can’t help it, I have to be me! Anyways, last year she did a post about a decision she made in early 2010 that led to her auditioning for the show. You can find the post here. I could give you my summary of my favorite parts but instead I’ll use the magic of cut and paste to share it with you in quote format.
So what was different about 2010, eh? Well, for starters i woke up January 1st, and was all, ‘ok, life, fine, you asked for it, Emily Henderson is about to care less about what people think and take a few risks’. Cause, you want to know the real truth? I was sick of people that are less smart and less talented being more successful because they have less fear. You heard me, and you know what I’m talking about. Big words from a little blond, i know. I hope that doesn’t come across boastful, cause I’m not saying I’m the smartest or most talented, but I kept seeing the same thing over and over, and was a little tired of wondering why it wasn’t happening to me. -Emily Henderson
Uh, does that hit any of you between the eyes? Cause it sure affected me. Maybe it’s cause she’s an Emily, or maybe it’s because I see so many dum-dums getting ahead in life because they don’t know they’re stupid. C’mon, I know that you are all thinking of the dum-dum you know that is wildly successful despite being an idiot. They are out there in droves.
Don’t worry, this is not going to be a blog post that rails against stupidity. I like to keep it positive. In fact this is actual a pro-dummy post. I’ve really been thinking about what she said and it’s time for me to be more fearless. Sure, I’ll probably make some spectacular mistakes but if you’ve read this blog for any length of time you’ll know that it’s not like I’m currently mistake free! Please! In the words of Cher Horowitz, “as if”.
So I decided this is the year to stop mulling/thinking/half-wishing that I was a professional writer, blogger, creative-person and instead take steps to make it happen.
Enter Jenny, a friend of a friend who is an actual writer. She is currently finishing a young adult novel that will be published. Obviously she is awesome. We went to dinner last Friday and I was talking to her about writing and she said “Would you like to write a book?” and I was like, uh, I don’ know? To which our mutual friend Char replied “Of course you would!” with an astounding amount of confidence.
You know how sometimes people outside you see you more clearly than you see yourself? I think it was like that but I wasn’t convinced yet. After all Char did once convince me to see Scream 3 in the movie theater. I still haven’t recovered.
In reply to Char’s assertion I began listing all the boring and practical reasons I don’t have time to write a book. My full-time job, my child, what would I write about?, blah, blah, blah.
Mercifully Jenny interrupted me “Okay, pretend, I’m a publisher and I said ‘I will give you $20,000 to write a book, but you have to tell me in 2 days what it’s going to be about.’ What do you say?”
“I would write about Elian’s adoption, or a series of short funny stories” I said with about 2 milliseconds hesitation.
Uh… speaking of dummies. What kind of person thinks they don’t want to write a book but can spit out an answer like that instantaneously?
I think, quite possibly a person that might be dumb enough to write one.
Jenny also helped me formulate a plan. More on that later this week.
