by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have to accept that I’m an Old. I’m past the Even Horizon when it comes to any success I might have being done under the “normal” routine. This fact is so deep to me that it sometimes washing across my mind and stops me cold. Even if I eventually get the success I believe I’m capable of — which is debatable at this point — the context will be all out of whack.
Instead of gradually paying my dues and becoming a success like a normal fucking person, I’ll seemingly “come out of nowhere” as an “Old.” If I become a such a success that I catch the eye of the press, that’s all they’ll want to know — “How does it feel being a sudden success as an Old.”
At the moment, there are two potential ways I might realistically become such a success — writing and photography.
I’ve spent the last few years working on a six novel project and it’s going really well. I’m pleased with where things stand and I feel I just have to be patient and there’s a reasonable chance that I will get within shouting distance of selling a novel. Or, put another way, I now know how I develop and write a novel and there’s a pretty good chance that I might sell a novel before I drop dead.
Meanwhile, there’s photography.
In a sense, I like photography more than writing because the reaction is instant and a good or great photograph is self-evident. But there is the problem of being able to afford buying the equipment. And that, to date, has been a real problem for me. I’ve been very poor for a very long time.
The point is — I’ll put a move on you.
There’s a greater-than-zero chance that should something happen and my financial situation change rather abruptly that I’m going to suddenly have a career in photography. And given I love women and I love beauty, that would lead me to the sweetspot of fashion photography.
But, at the moment at least, all of that is just daydreaming. If you are using an sort of traditional metrics to judge my potential fate, well, lulz, you have every reason to ignore all of this and, I don’t know, be a smug successful liberal in a major urban area.
And, yet, people always underestimate me. Always. As long as there’s life, there’s hope.
