On September 4, 2012, I was happy with the book I had written.  I believed in it enough that I decided it was time to start a blog and keep track of my journey toward authorhood.  I believed in it – but I didn’t count on it.  I had no idea how things would shake out.  The question thrumming in my mind for much of the last year was Will this happen? 

Yesterday was my blog anniversary, and I have kept up with this blog just as I set out to do – which is a first.  I haven’t let myself down.  I have sat down and written again and again this year, regardless of whether or not I felt like it – and not just on this blog.  This year, for the first time, I treated myself like a professional writer, and I expected from myself what I believed I ought to expect from a professional writer.

And what do you know?

Yesterday was also the first day of the new school year.  I spent last week organizing my classroom and color-coding my posters, and now the kids are back to make a beautiful, vibrant mess of my efforts.  Middle-school students are like no others.  They pop with life.  They seethe with emotion.  They are on the cusp of everything.  It’s electrifying.

My son also starts preschool this year.  I’m amazed at how fast that tide came in.  I felt like I had so much time before preschool would be upon us.  Nope.  As it turns out, every cliche is true, and my child is growing up much, much too fast.  

So. I am a mother, and I am a teacher (with three preps!) – and now, in a more real and on-the-hook way than ever before, I am a writer.  For the past few weeks, as summer has set, I’ve felt the stress of these responsibilities gathering.  Pressing in.

I am trying not to panic.

The big question thrumming in my head this year is Can I balance motherhood, teaching, and writing, and do all three jobs justice?

Here’s hoping that, like last year, the answer is Yes.