By. Alex W. Miller
For most people, graduation is an exciting day -
the culmination of years of hard work. My
graduation day... was not.
I remember that weekend two years ago. Family
and friends had flown in from across the country
to watch our class walk across that stage. But
like everyone else in my graduating class, I had
watched the economy turn from bad to worse
my senior year. We graduates had degrees, but
very limited prospects. Numerous applications
had not panned out and I knew that the next
day, when my lease ended, I would no longer
have a place to call home.
The weeks ahead weren't easy. I gathered up
everything I couldn't carry and put it into
storage. Then, because I knew my small
university town couldn't offer me any
opportunities, I packed up my car and drove to
Southern California to find work. But what I
thought would take a week dragged into two, and
then four, and 100 job applications later, I found
myself in the exact same spot as I was before.
And the due date to begin paying back my
student loans was creeping ever closer.
You know that feeling when you wake up and you
are just consumed with dread? Dread about
something you can't control - that sense of
impending failure that lingers over you as you
hope that everything that happened to you thus
far was just a bad dream? That feeling became a
constant in my life.
Days felt like weeks, weeks like months, and
those many months felt like an unending eternity
of destitution. And the most frustrating part was
no matter how much I tried, I just couldn't seem
to make any progress.
So what did I do to maintain my sanity? I wrote.
Something about putting words on a page made
everything seem a little clearer - a little brighter.
Something about writing gave me hope. And if
you want something badly enough... sometimes a
little hope is all you need!
I channeled my frustration into a children's book.
Beyond the River was the story of an unlikely
hero featuring a little fish who simply refused to
give up on his dream.
And then one day, without any sort of writing
degree or contacts in the writing world - just a
lot of hard work and perseverance - I was offered
a publishing contract for my first book! After
that, things slowly began to fall into place. I was
offered a second book deal. Then, a few months
later, I got an interview with The Walt Disney
Company and was hired shortly after.
The moral of this story is... don't give up. Even if
things look bleak now, don't give up. Two years
ago I was huddled in my car drinking cold soup
right out of the can. Things change.
If you work hard, give it time, and don't give up,
things will always get better. Oftentimes our
dreams lie in wait just a little further upstream...
all we need is the courage to push beyond the
river.
Alex is the author of a new children's story
called Beyond The River about a little fish who is
looking for answers. Reprinted with Alex's kind
permission. Copyright © 2011.
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