I am Amazed by myself

Blog Post Number 28 Written: 06-20-2021 Uploaded 08-06-2022

I have learned so much during this whole publishing thing. I have gained so many new skills, things I didn’t expect to learn, many were things I didn’t want to learn, but I learned them anyway, for the sake of the book, ya know?

Some of it was life stuff when to trust people, when not to trust people, which hill to die on, for my book, for my art. To follow my gut instinct, to know when I am being taken for a ride. 

But I have also learned so many other, more tangible skills. Social media for one, is entirely new to me. Learning to navigate those waters, to stay on topic, to talk about book and writing stuff only, much as I am doing now, and not going into any of the other things such as politics or ethics, much as I am doing now. I never had social media, not until I was contractually obligated to by my first publisher. I bought domains, I built websites. (Shameless plug for my websites, chacerandolph.com and thedescendantsaga.com) I learned how to record and edit videos, to make YouTube videos, to stream on Twitch, use other programs, other stuff like online payment programs, what’s it called? Paypal? I’ve had to use that kinds of stuff, which is also new to a stone-age desert rat like myself. To record audiobooks, and edit audio files with things like Audacity. How to use apps like Audible to listen to audiobooks. That was all new to me, new things to navigate, remember I grew up without the internet, without phones, or that fancy stuff. I was wrangling goats, riding bicycles, walking miles and miles of back roads to get to friends’ houses, staying up late playing with welders to build go-karts, and such. It might have been the opening decade and a half of the new millennium for the world, but my world was still stuck in the 1980s. My parents were driving 70’s cars. I had my dad’s old Walkman and I was still listening to tapes, digging through what my dad had laying around because that’s what we had, that’s what I had. So in five years from moving out of my parent’s house not knowing what a ‘google’ was to now owning and building my own websites, using bunches of different apps, trading stocks, making my own videos, writing and recording books, making publishing deals, it has been quite the renaissance for me. That was on top of my college and doing one hundred thirty six credits in five semesters to get three associate’s degrees and paying my way with scholarships.  On occasions like this, where I am explaining to people what I have been up to, and I have to take multiple breaths.

I have to write multiple paragraphs just to list my achievements since high school, my jobs, my marriage, buying my own house, my own car, and motorcycle and truck (still uncomfortable with fuel injection.), and so on, I think I made my point there, I don’t need to list everything I have accomplished because I’m here for two reasons, one to tell you I published a book, the other to tell you, you can do the thing. Anyone can do anything. You just have to want it bad enough. When I got out of that little town and found the internet and the wealth of information I could learn and things I could do, the only thing limiting my success is the amount of time I have to devote to it. Because I have done all these things, from college to jobs, and then better jobs and writing books and publishing books and websites and learning how to use programs, to make video and record audiobooks. I have come so far, learned so much in the past handful of years, when I lay all this stuff out in a conversation, it even gives me pause. Like, I am impressed with myself, because of how I have blossomed, I have done everything I have set out to do. There has been nothing I couldn’t do, nothing I couldn’t accomplish. And now, I am working on the next step, the final building block, the capstone of my dreams. Let me tell you, I did it. This is the feeling, I made it. So can you. You can do the thing. Anyone can do anything, you just have to want it bad enough. Don’t take no for an answer, don’t let them tell you it’s impossible. You can do the things, especially if you don’t know that those things are impossible.

I have faith in you, humanity may be a dirty, lying, backstabbing, disgusting race of animals that are only slightly hairy, but we are also some of the most beautiful, creative, loving, and intimate animals too. I believe you can do the thing, and even if no one else does, because oftentimes they won’t, all you need is for you to believe you can do the thing. There’s your little pep talk, I’m sorry it took me a while to get it out, now. Go amaze yourself.