To everyone who ever said I should write a book...

     So, it's Monday, December 10th at 10:19am and I am sitting in Lula's Coffee Company...getting ready to start a BOOK!!!  Yes, you read that correctly.
     Ever since I was in high school, I have LOVED writing and my dad always told me that I HAD to write book about my life and living overseas as a Missionary Kid.  I sincerely hated math and science, but loved any class where we had to write papers or do projects (mainly because I made better grades in those classes and my teachers usually told me that I was a good writer).  Then, I got to college and continued to do well until my Junior year at Francis Marion University.  Unfortunately, I had a professor who started everyone in his class with a "0" or "F".  If a student wanted to improve their "F", they had to prove to him that they deserved it.  He never would tell us how much a paper was worth to our final grade, what he expected, or how it was even going to be graded, so it was basically a lose lose situation for every student.  This was the first time in my life that I was not doing so hot in English class.  My professor convinced me that I was NOT a good writer and that I barely deserved an average grade.  He had also been my Mimi's professor when she was at Francis Marion and constantly reminded me how much better my Mimi had done in his class than I was doing.  I was crushed...this was my favorite subject, the one I thought was my best and that I loved.  So, at the end of the semester, this professor told me that he decided to move me up from my "F" to a "C" as my final grade, telling me it wasn't because I did well, but because he was being generous.  I had never made less than a B- in my life and almost fainted when he gave me the news.  He couldn't understand why I was so upset.  I begged and cried and followed him to the staff room to try to get him to understand that if he gave me a "C" that I would lose my scholarship and not be able to continue going to school.  He told me "too bad" and to take out student loans to make up for my lost scholarship.  I knew I was doomed, but when the report cards came out, I surprisingly had a "B"...I guess my sob story him got to him later.  So, the good thing was that I came out of that semester with a "B" and I kept my scholarships and eventually graduated from Francis Marion.  The bad thing was that I was convinced that I was a bad writer.
     So, skip ahead a few years when Nick and I joined the mission field and I started to write a blog to keep all of our supporters up to date and in contact with us.  I loved writing stories on my blog about our lives on the mission field.  Some of the stories were hilarious, some were serious, some sad.  I still thought I wasn't a good writer but, the more I wrote, the more people told me that I should write a book.  I couldn't believe it!  So, for the past four years, when people said I should write a book, my answer has been "Yea, maybe one day I'll do it", but really I am thinking "Yea right, I could never write a book".
     However, My turning point was during September of this year.  If you know Nick and me, you know that we love adventures and we love crossing off things on our ever growing bucket list.  In September, we took the entire month and did a road trip across country to the West coast and back.  We had a lot of great conversations about our life together, our past few years and where we want to go in the future.  We always say that when we are an old couple (if God allows that), we want to talk about all of the things that we did and not all of the things that we WISH that we did.  So, our bucket list expands as we continue to excitedly cross off our dreams, one by one.  Finally, after that long personal history lesson, I come to the end of the "story"....we have officially put writing a book on our bucket list, saying that I need to stop talking about doing it and actually start writing it...so, here I am, sitting at Lula's, not knowing what to write (I have some crazy ideas), or where to start, or what will come of this, but knowing that it I don't at least attempt it, I will be an old woman wishing that I had dared to try!
     So, I'm predicting that if I become a famous millionaire, Nick and I will probably take a year off and do a trip around the entire world!  But, even if that doesn't happen, I can still cross this off our bucket list!