Pain and Gain

Yes, I do believe this.

Story time: I spent many a day in the library, bent over books and curled up in a fairly uncomfortable chair. Here, the physical pain: sore shoulders from a heavy bag, sore eyes from lines of tiny print, cramped hands from writing and highlighting and typing.

Physical pain: the tiredness a particularly dry book or lecture can inspire, the weariness that comes from two bus journeys stacked on top of a full eight-hour day (a rare event, I grant you, but the principle remains the same)

And now I have a degree.

If I choose, I can go for post-graduate in a few years. I can work my way up, keep studying something I love.

I could carry on with writing, having met a friend with whom I’m planning to collaborate on a novel that may become a series. 

Other pains: dragging up old wounds to exorcise them on paper, producing a story which someone might read and admire. Feedback. To me the saying is kind of like saying you want to make an omelette but can’t break the eggs.

Sometimes things have to be challenging or hard or painful to get the desired result.