Find Your People. Love Them Hard.

You sit down in your basement or bedroom or whatever hovel you’ve dedicated to grinding out your current project and you get on with it. And when you’re done, you celebrate with people who love you but who can never really understand the act of inking your soul onto a page. 

When I moved to Calgary nine years ago, I joined a writing class. I had been writing my whole life, had a minor in creative writing from the University of Dalhousie, but had never really committed myself to a writing community. In a city where I knew very few people (and honestly cried on the daily because I missed home), it was a way to get out of the house, to meet others who were doing something I loved. I never dreamed that this writing community would turn into an integral pillar of my life. But that’s exactly what it has become. 

The members of my writing circle – the people to whom I’ve showed the depths of my soul, and taken a look deep into theirs in return – are the people who I trust beyond measure to be honest, to pick me up and dust me off, to hold my feet to the fire and push me to be better – not only in writing, but in life. They are cheerleaders and grief counselors and editors and mentors. They are the reason that I hold my head high regardless the number of rejections crowding my inbox or number of chapters left to meet a deadline. 

If you are a writer or creative of any sort, find your people. 

Find those who understand the lows, the rejections, the long nights and crippling doubt. 

The people who know exactly when to build you up and when you need a hard kick in the pants. Because you know as well as I do that if you’ve chosen this creative path, there are a lot of downs. A lot of moments where it all feels pointless, where you’re not sure that you are or ever can make a difference, where it’s hard and lonely and tedious. Where sometimes the only motivation to finish is someone screaming in your ear that you are great, that your contribution is needed, and that no matter what you believe about yourself, they will always be in your corner. 

Find your people. Love them hard. And make sure they know exactly how much they mean to you.