8/31/2023 0 Comments Simone bikes quitter![]() Suddenly, I was adrift - still technically a writer, sure, but without a job title, did it even count? I was happy with my success and proud of it, even though unlocking one achievement inevitably just added another, higher one to my list.īut when, in the summer of 2019, the company I’d worked for since college let me go, my identity crumbled. In a matter of months, I had an essay published in a magazine edited by my literary hero, interviews out with actors I’d grown up adoring, and the first semblance of what I hoped to eventually turn into a memoir. And the more care I put into my work, the better I got. Unlike many of my friends, I never felt impostor syndrome, because I was sure I was meant to be where I was. This wasn’t always a bad thing, of course. Writing was what really counted, so embedded in me that everything else disappeared. Those things were just extras, the parts of me that didn’t really matter. It didn’t occur to me that writing was not, in fact, my entire identity, that there was far more about me - my intelligence, my sense of humor, my love of reading and crossword puzzles and movies starring Kate Winslet - than just the words I wrote on a page. After all, it wasn’t just my job, but my life any day that went by without writing I counted as a failure, a sign of laziness that only encouraged me to write more the next day. If you’d asked me who I was back then, the answer would’ve been simple: a writer. If even a superstar like Biles had trouble separating herself from her work - what did that say about the rest of us? I was doing as well as I could ever have hoped, living out the dreams of the 8-year-old who kept journals full of stories and pictures of Judy Blume and J.K. By the time I was 25, I was editing writers twice my age and talking to literary agents about representation. Every time I published a new personal essay, or a profile of a celebrity, or an op-ed for a newspaper, the applause flew in: I was talented, I was original, I was ambitious and inspiring and brave. I was already getting enough praise for the writing I did release, not only from my editors, but from my peers and other writers. Some of these pieces I published, either on the website I worked for or in other outlets, but many I kept for myself, holding on to them until they were ready for the world to read. In addition to the writing I did at my job, I wrote hundreds of pages on my own - long, lyrical essays on everything from relationships to body image. I loved what I did, and I was good at it - so good, in fact, that I was hired full-time by a company before I’d even gotten my degree. Before long, I was spending my days balancing classes and work, which, at that time, meant writing news stories on celebrity gossip and awards-show analyses. In college, I wasted no time finding job opportunities within the field, applying for internships at magazines and cold-emailing editors I’d grown up reading. There was no point at which I decided to pursue writing as a career - it had always been my path, as ingrained in my sense of self as my hair color or my name. At home, I wrote 60-page “books” and honed the voice that would eventually become my signature style. In school, I took every English class I could find and wrote poetry so dark, the counselor called my parents. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a writer. But I do know what it’s like to feel so connected to your work and achievements that they become not just one part of your identity, but all of it. Showing the world that level of humanity is one of the strongest things Biles could do.I am not an athlete, nor have I ever faced the level of pressure someone like Biles experiences on a regular basis. That win tied her with Shannon Miller for the most medals won by an American gymnast.īiles told the Associated Press: "We're not just entertainment, we're humans." "And there are things going on behind the scenes that we're also trying to juggle with as well, on top of sports." ![]() ![]() Her fans definitely heard her over her seven Olympic ended up returning to the Olympic stage to claim Bronze on the balance beam. Many defended Biles decision, including former Olympian Dominique Moceanu, who landed on the balance beam head first but was made to go on into the next competition without a medical exam.īiles feats of strength on the mat and the beam seem to match her strength and determination off as well.
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