Last week, while flying to NYC to talk with Penguin about Do Over, I was reminded of a flight I took 6 years ago.
I had spoken at a conference using a vacation day and was returning to my corporate job. I didn’t have a book out yet and didn’t really believe I could be a writer.
I was spending my 10th year just working a job and the reality of the situation was overwhelming. I knew when I landed there was a pair of khakis waiting for me in the car. I’d change clothes in the handicapped stall at work and then go back into a sea of cubicles, the previous day at the conference disappearing into the reality of another workweek.
I started crying in the airport in Chicago because I didn’t want to go back.
To have the experience I had last week, to speak at the MOMA about a book I wrote, to have thousands of friends already pre-order it, to talk with a publisher who believes in me about the next one I am writing was overwhelming. (I instagrammed it in the moment because it hit me like some sort of crazy tidal wave.)
I’ve been through some difficult career transitions. I’ve gained some things and lost some others along the way. I’ve made mistakes, failed and fallen down so many times.
I will never tell you that life change is fast or easy. Nothing that matters is.
But I will always tell you it’s possible because I don’t cry in airports any more.