Finally, So Soon

I went to a gorgeous wedding yesterday. The sky was the blue, the air crisp. Yellow and orange leaves drifted like confetti, and the bride and groom were so love.

During the toast, the maid of honor commented how happy she was that her little sister had finally found love.

The bride is 23.

I hadn't been thinking "finally." I was thinking how she was to have lucky she had found love so soon.

The same is often true in writing careers. Sometimes contracts and success seem to come quickly. Sometimes they happen after many years of struggle. Either way, the person who is living it always experiences it as a "finally," and not a "so soon."

The truth is that you never know what creative, personal, or professional struggles another person has overcome to get where they are. They may have written many drafts or manuscripts, or maybe the struggle came before they ever typed a keystroke -- a long path to the process of deciding to write, to synthesizing the thoughts, experiences, and study of many years into a story that seems to be an overnight success.

Whenever love comes, whenever success happens, it's never out of nowhere, nor is it ever too late.

It's always, "Finally, so soon."