There is a professor that I want to write like. She has a way of capturing words with precision that I have never been able to grasp. In fact, there are quite a few people I would like to write like, and I seem to be always encountering new ones.

Why do I persist in wanting to be an author when it seems I must daily tell myself that they're not really better than me, that I can write just as well as they can? And yet writing is my love, and my passion, and sometimes even my life. Writing is my means of communication, my vocation, my calling. And I think, at least, that God has given me that gift and that love for a reason; that I may use writing to bless and change my society.

Am I fooling myself? Am I just like all those teenage punk rockers who think that their garage band will one day be famous?

Doubt and frustration with myself seem to be my daily companions. And yet God is faithful, and will direct me. I don't need to spend my life worrying about whether or not I am good enough or can ever be good enough. I'm not. Let's face that reality. I don't have to be. I only have to pursuit what I love with a passion that recognizes who God is and why he has placed me here.

And this will enable me to appreciate the good gifts of others; my professor's excellence of workmanship, my best friend's clarity with poetry, my mom's love of reading. And not feel these good gifts as hindrances to my own gifts.