Don’t Let the Fear of Striking Out Stop You from Playing the Game

2017 has been the year of fear, change and uncertainty. I decided to jump the gun and finally pursue what I love to do...write!

I graduated from uni God knows how long ago with a degree in magazine journalism. After that I worked full time in a job I’d been in since I was 16. I’ve never had a problem working there, because I gained a group of best friends and enjoyed doing the job. But as time went on, the 9-5 life got extremely boring and it wasn’t even 'till 5! The point is that I had so much I wanted to do, but had no idea where to start.

  I slowly started branching out with writing bits and bobs. Starting a blog about the books I’d been reading and accumulated over the months. As everyone knows the bookworm I am, it made perfect sense. This was great and I finally fell back into writing and remembering how incredibly fulfilling it really is.

That age old thing called fear hit me and I never imagined asking to write for any publications, so I just occasionally carried on with the odd post here and there. Then when someone close to me passed away it somehow just made me snap out of ‘the fear.’ Life is so much shorter than we think. I realised how many years I’d been wasting because I was too scared to change. The thing with fear is we are so worried about the ‘What ifs?’ ‘What if It doesn’t work out? What if it isn’t meant to be? What if I fail?’

We never say what if it works out? What if it’s a roaring success or even what if it makes me happy? My main concern was failing and people judging me.

After freelancing for only four months I experienced both failure and judgment. But you know what? I’ve been published in the niche that made me love to write- drag. One little reality TV show in the spring got me emerged into a new world I never thought I could be apart of.

 Since May, I’ve quit my 9-6 job, travelled across the UK and Ireland. I’ve met countless new friends that are certainly with me for life. Encountered the best shows and met queens I adore. To top it off I also get to contribute to an online drag publication. This has also led to starting a drag queen site documenting the travels, shows and news within the drag queen world. Doing something you love and watching it grow successfully, even though you aren’t getting paid, is one of the best feelings.

 I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been tough, I’ve had to do jobs I didn’t enjoy, struggled financially and had become very unorganized with day-to-day stuff. I have no regrets though! Not one. Even though I left a full time job with no plan whatsoever, I have been successful. I’ve learned so much within the writing/freelance world. Personally about how strong I am and how to talk to new people, which was a big thing for me.

 I’ve got to travel to places on my own, which is a small feat for me as I’m a complete homebody with no sense of direction. Yet I’m so hard on myself because I’m fearful of what people think. But why? I’ve gone from not writing for five years to being published in wonderful websites [including this one]!

Go on to communicate with editors and writers across the world and even learnt to file invoices! I have a long way to go to making this work full-time and I’m now okay with that., because I know I can do it. Sometimes we just need to look fear right in the face and think ‘what if I don’t do it?’ In years to come do you really want to think what life would've been like if you didn’t change? We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

📷📷📷📷📷📷📷

#Bedroom #Design #Lifestyle