B&W Part II

I was having a conversation with a coworker this morning while we still had some downtime. It was a continuation of a subject we came across a day or two ago when he asked me what else I had been working on in regards to my writing. My long time collaborator and I want to do a story in the future that plays with the themes of purpose and life in general.

The question posed in the story is something I believe everyone can relate to. When we are born, is it already determined for us who we will become, or is it our choices and experiences that shape us? There was a point in my life where I was an advid church goer and firm believer in the Christian faith. My faith brought me out to the middle of nowhere Minnesota because I felt as though God was telling me to move there. I am no longer a devout Christian, but I still wonder about who I am meant to be and if the choices I am making for myself right now are the "right" choices.

I went through a good portion of my late teens and early twenties not sure about what I wanted to do in life. I've tried my hand at a lot of things; DJ, bartender, insurance salesman, retail monkey, etc. I came to realize that I have a lot of stories to tell and that I'm pretty good at it. So I decided to become a writer and have been pursuing that full time for the last three years or so. I moved here to Southern California to be closer to the entertainment industry, but have yet to get my foot in the entertainment industry's door. I have however had two published works come out since I've been out here, one of which I wrote while here and the other while I was still in San Francisco, with more to come next year.

I haven't been writing all that much as of late due to a combination of fatigue, laziness and a feeling of going through the motions. I don't believe in writing only when inspiration strikes, I think that's a cop out. I suppose that's why I'm flexing my muscles again on this here blog and trying to work off some of that writer's rust. I need to get back into the daily regimen I once had and hopefully start producing quality stories again.

I don't know the answer to the question of whether or not we are born into who we are or become who we are. I like to believe that we have free will. I like to believe that if I try hard enough to accomplish something, I will. At the very least I hope to gain enough knoweldge to succeed the next time around. But talk of success is nice, succeeding is much more gratifying. 

"At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fates. That's the world's greatest lie. Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it."

-The Alchemist, Paolo Coelho