TGIM - Hardship

I got some bad news on Saturday in the form of rough estimate for what I owe the government in taxes.  Yeah, I'm pretty much down to the last of the reserves.  I'm not dire, as I've got Days Missing and some TC work to hold down the fort, but they're the last hurrah in terms of 100% officially signed off on and negotiated work.  After that...  Well, that April 1 post may not be too far from the truth.

Anyhow, that's enough of that.  No more time spent on the negative.  Here's what I'm getting at.  A few weeks back, David Wohl and I carpooled to the Radical Publishing grand opening at their new LA offices.  I had recently run out of normal funding, and David relayed a bit of advice he had received from former Marvel head honcho, the late Mark Gruenwald.  Mark told him that you couldn't reach greatness without having struggled.  I told David, I grew up in the suburbs, so by that token, I'll never be great.  David dismissed the thought, telling me that this, right now, was hardship.  This was my struggle.  It's not fighting a war or losing a limb.  It's not beating cancer or some other some such real struggle.  It is what it is for each person. 

Right now, times are tough for everyone.  The U.S. economy affects the global economy, and I'm at the center of the maelstrom in my own life.  I worry, of course.  Probably a bit more every day that goes on and I don't have a metric ton of cash sitting in the bank account.  I worry on the days when I know there's no paycheck coming on the 1st or 15th.  But I'm not worried.  This, like everything else I've faced in my life (good and bad) is something I will get through.  And if this is a tougher challenge, that's not something I'm worried about.  I'll come through stronger, better, and likely faster.  I'm like the 6 Million Dollar Man of unemployment.

Hardship builds character.  This is a crucial time for me because it decides the course of my life.  Not only professionally, but in terms of my character.  I could turn tail and run, give up and head home to Atlanta.  I could live rent free in my parents' house and not worry about anything.  But I'd feel like a failure because I had failed myself, and everything I'd spent two and a half decades working toward.  So I'm not going to whine or complain.  I'm not going to be complacent.

I'm coming through the other side a better man and a better writer.  I'll see those of you who have struggled through it on the other side.  The rest of you...  Time's wasting, so get your asses over here.