Hi there Rowie,
It’s me, your fifty-year-old self. (Yes, I know. I can’t say that without swearing either!)
Listen, I know you are in a very dark place right now. I’m here to tell you that you will overcome this.
In fact, this is the best thing to happen to you. Truly.
Now, don’t roll your eyes. Remember, I’ve been there too.
Ahead of you are some difficult months. You will question everything, particularly your self-worth. There will be dark thoughts and tears. Many tears. Tears are okay. Even these dark thoughts are okay because they help you discover inner strength and renewed purpose.
There are those who don’t understand, who tell you to ‘get over it’, who think you are making a fuss about nothing. Ignore them. Those people have their own lessons to learn. Let them go. They leave room for some wonderful people coming into your life. People who share and encourage your passion for creativity. And though it doesn’t seem like it, you do have some special people in your life right now.
The best advice I can give you is to trust your instincts. You’ve been bullied so long you’ve lost confidence in this, but your instincts are good. Listen to your gut. Trust yourself. And believe in your passion. Your passion will help you find your path.
Right now you feel like a failure, like everything you’ve done, everything you’ve achieved, has been wasted. It hasn’t. Everything you’ve learned throughout your life is going to converge into a very useful skill-set to support your passion for writing. Nothing is wasted. All roads lead to the right path, and that path, when you find it, is amazing. Believe that.
I’d love to reach back and wipe away some of those difficult days you’re still to face, but they are necessary. Without them, you won’t discover your strength. Without them you won’t know what you can survive.
So keep moving forward and don’t waste energy looking back. I guarantee your forties are going to be great.
Love from your fifty year-old self
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rowena Holloway considers herself a reformed academic. After being bullied out of a career she loved she now pours all that passion into writing stories of fractured families and killer secrets. As the middle child of four siblings, she knows a thing or two about secrets—as to what she knows about fractured families, she’s keeping that to herself although some clues might be found in her fiction.
Her short stories have been included in the Stringybark anthology Yellow Pearl and the 2011 Anthology of Award Winning Australian Writing. Her novels Pieces of a Lie and All That’s Left Unsaid have each been nominated for the Ned Kelly Crime Fiction Award.
Her third novel, Ashes to Ashes, is due for release in 2016.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rowenahollowayauthor/
Twitter https://twitter.com/RowenaHolloway
Website http://rowenaholloway.com/
[bctt tweet=” What advice does author @RowenaHolloway give her 35 y.o self? #LetterToMyself https://www.jennjmcleod.com/blog/a-letter-to-myself-author-list” username=”jennjmcleod”]
To see the list of authors taking part in this letter-writing blog series: CLICK
Wanting to honour the lost art of letter writing through this blog series, I also opened my fourth novel with a character writing a letter. And not just any letter. It’s a story — perhaps the most important he’ll ever tell.
The Other Side of the Season
Life is simple on top of the mountain for David, Matthew and Tilly until the winter of 1979 when tragedy strikes, starting a chain reaction that will ruin lives for years to come. Those who can, escape the Greenhill banana plantation on the outskirts of Coffs Harbour. One stays—trapped for the next thirty years on the mountain and haunted by memories and lost dreams. That is until the arrival of a curious young woman, named Sidney, whose love of family shows everyone the truth can heal, what’s wrong can be righted, the lost can be found, and . . . there’s another side to every story.
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