Cycles

Someone asked me why my final blog post for NaNoWriMo was just moving on to the future like that, and why I never really stopped to reflect on how great this November was.

Hey, November has been my favorite month for the last five years, ever since I discovered this program. And I still get just as much out of it as everyone else does. Unfortunately, since I know I can't make it to a "Thank God It's Over" party, I haven't really had any encouragement to express my excitement. I guess that's always how it's been--halfway into December people go, "Oh hey did you ever finish that novel?" (Besides, I'm already being flooded by everyone else's long reactions to the month, and I don't want to be repetitive!)

It's more than that, though, I think. It has to do with my personal thoughts about progress and accomplishment. Yes, this is probably going to get a little philosophical, but hear me out.

What's just happened is kind of like a vacation. When you go on vacation, everything else in life is kind of put on hold for a bit, as best you can manage. But it's not gone. It's waiting for you as soon as you get home, and it might even be a bit tougher while you catch up to things!

Or you could compare it to getting your dream job. When that happens, you certainly feel triumphant, and you celebrate. Then after that, it's time to actually go to work. You're excited, you get a good feel for it, and then, if it really is your dream job, you probably set out to have some kind of success at it, right? You have a new goal, and you move on to it, but it builds on your last goal that you accomplished.

For me, finishing NaNoWriMo is both of these things. It's both a return to normal life from something really enjoyable, and something to celebrate in its own right, but ultimately I have to move on to the next goal beyond that. Does that mean I'll never be satisfied? Maybe. But I feel like everything I do is building up to something really amazing. One day it's going to add up to an amazing collection of books. And that's a goal worth striving for.