And there it was.

{via}

You know how people always ask you "that question" on your birthday? You know the one. "How do you feel now that you're *insert any number from 3-25*?" I've always been mildly annoyed by those questions. It doesn't feel any different. It's just another day in the life. Turning 17 isn't what makes you feel 17; all the awesome and not-so-awesome things you experience when you're 17 are what make you feel a year older. And by the time you feel that way, you're 18, and the cycle starts over again.

I got asked a similar question recently. I was sitting there, holding it in my hands, staring down at page 32 with a slightly dazed expression on my face and a pure cloud of golden joy fogging up my vision. "So," my dad asked. "How does it feel to be published?"

The answer?

Not that much different. It feels great, don't get me wrong. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling I felt when I tore away that envelope and saw the magazine hiding inside, or the feeling I felt when I saw my story printed on a crisp white page, one of those shiny expensive magazine pages and not the flimsy computer paper pages my stories have lived on for so long. I couldn't stop smiling. But I didn't feel all that different. I have a theory. Getting published the kind of experience that totally exhausts you and makes you terribly happy and is often followed by a burst of applause from friends and family. Then when it's all over, you sit back, read your story a few times, and tap your fingers on the table.

That was fun, you think. Now let's do it again.

And I'm already planning to.

Ps. Getting published could also be just like doing a gigantic face-smash into a delicious chocolate cake. I haven't quite decided yet.

NEWS.

Like, really big news!

Well, first off, I didn't get that big scholarship I'd wanted. I came home from skiing yesterday, exhausted yet excited because I knew that I'd soon find out whether or not I'd be invited to go down to Georgia for scholarship weekend. The phone call wouldn't have let me know that I GOT the scholarship, but it would bring me one step closer to being able to attend the college I'm being pulled towards right now. Anyway, I got a call from my Admissions Rep. She was so sweet, apologizing that I hand't gotten invited even though it wasn't her fault. That made the news easier, somehow.

But today, I was really feeling the weight of not being awarded all that money. College is EXPENSIVE, people. If you don't have a job, get one and start saving, because all that hard-earned money is going to go a long way if you save wisely. I'm looking into other scholarships outside of the school, but they require more work and time that I don't have. So I was stressing out.

Tonight, I came home a little depressed. I sit down at my computer and what do I see (besides my amazing War Horse Background)?

An email.

No, not from Fozzy (although I always loooove to hear from her). Not from the college, telling me there's been a horrible mistake and would I please come and accept a wad of cash (though that would be nice, too).

It was an email from a Christian writers' magazine that I'd mentioned a while back, right after the writer's conference 2011.

They want my short story.

As in, to publish.

On paper.

Maybe with an illustration.

In only a couple months.


God is so amazing in His timing! I was feeling so let down, and yet here's something to pick me back up--something I've been working towards and praying for and dreaming about for... well, years.

[potential, but it looks like it really is happening] PUBLICATION.

I just had to share that with you. I'm so grateful, scared, and beside myself with excitement. Please pray that I don't send the publishers a really hyper email, singing something about rainbows and unicorns bursting from the clouds, and scare them out of wanting to publish me. That would be bad.


Thanking God [and putting my editing cap on!]~

Elisabeth