Lessons in Unlikely Places

I think I may have sprouted four new gray hairs this week, because I realized that next year marks twenty years since my college graduation. Stop it. JUST STOP IT.

I really don't feel any older, though hopefully I am a bit wiser than I was in the days of the unfortunate hair experiments. 

For those of you who may be new here and don't know, I majored in writing. Not journalism. Writing. I went to college fully convinced I would learn to write compelling novels and would spend my life cranking out story after story after story.

If I'd had my way about it back then, I would have just majored in fiction. It's all I cared about, so it's all I wanted to learn. Alas, they didn't have a fiction major, and in order to meet the requirements of the writing major, I had to take classes in all kinds of writing. 

I learned two big truths about myself in those four years.

1. I am not a poet at all. Think of the worst poet you've ever encountered. I'm worse.

2. My heart actually sings for nonfiction, not fiction. 

Who knew?

I had a misconception that nonfiction books were all biographies, and I hadn't read a single biography in my K-12 academic career that I found remotely interesting. Once I learned the proper definition of nonfiction and took a class in it, I found I adore nonfiction and if we're all being honest, I don't have the gift of writing fiction. I'm a storyteller, but not of the fiction variety.

Over the course of the past week, I've been attending an online writing conference, and it has been such a boost to my soul. I've chosen to watch every single workshop, regardless of the topic. I know some of them, like fiction, aren't likely to have a ton of information in them that is applicable to what I do. But along the way, I've learned you can almost always find a lesson in an unlikely place, if you just dare to enter.

After all, that's how I found out my best writing fit in the first place. I dared to enroll in the unlikely-to-fit class of nonfiction.

So I watch every conference workshop, even if I think I might not learn a thing. And so far, I haven't closed a single video without taking a decent handful of notes over meaningful points.

It doesn't just apply to majors or conferences or classes, by the way.

You never know when you might find a meaningful friendship with the most opposite sort of person.

You never know when you'll stumble upon a hobby that zings your creative juices.

You never know when you might discover an author or musical artist that feeds you the very words you need to hear.

You never know when you might unearth a keeper of a recipe simply by trying something new and different.

Lessons and life-changing experiences hide in the unlikeliest of places. Don't be afraid to walk through the door. You just never know what you might find.