I didn’t know how hard it would be to write a book. I started this journey almost 2 years ago.

I had been thinking of writing a book for a very long time. It terrified me but it also excited me. I was working in IT as a manager. I enjoy my work but it was not my passion. I think I have been looking for my passion since leaving grad school years ago. Since then, I have worked jobs. Many jobs but none truly satisfied, until I started writing. First for fun and then more seriously. First a journal and then a book.

One day I was unhappy with my life, my job, my boss. So, I went to a networking event. Thinking maybe it was time to find a new job, or possibly hoping for insight or advice to keep an old one.

I sat in the front.

I was overweight and on medications for high blood pressure. I didn't like how I felt. I had never been so heavy. I didn't like how I felt in my body, my clothes.

So, I was sitting there eating a salad. He walked in the room. I noticed him right away. Not sure why. He was not particularly handsome. He was average height, weight and dark hair. But there was something about him. A confidence, like he knew something I didn’t know. He walked up to me and said, "Is this seat taken?" I looked around and realized it was the only one left in the room. I said, "Now it is!" I smiled and put my hand out to shake his. Maybe it would be a good night after all.

He looked at my salad and asked where I had gotten it. I said they made one especially for me. I had to watch what I ate these days. I asked if he would like one. He said no, he had eaten. Then, he said something that spoke to me. He said he had recently lost over 40 lbs. and that he was focusing on his health now. At that moment, I realized he was someone I wanted to talk to. I am not sure why. Little did I know that two years later, I would also sit down at a table with someone at a networking event and tell them a similar story.

By then, I would be 31lbs lighter, healthier than I had been in years. We talked and talked. I felt like I had known him forever. How was that? I had just met him. Was he an angel? Was this really happening? Then, I said those fateful words. "I want to write a book!" I couldn't believe those words came out of my mouth. Before I could stop them, they were out of my mouth and into the world. He looked at me, smiled and said, "I can help you with that." I was shocked. Most of the time when I shared my dreams, people just looked at me and smiled. They smiled in a way that said, yeah right you want to write a book, so does everybody." It was like they were saying, "You'll never do that." But here was this person, this stranger saying, "Yes you can do it!".

Sometimes we find inspiration in the funniest places. It was that day I became a writer. That was the day I started writing my book. My first book. A memoir. And the journey continues....