My Johns Hopkins schoolmates have books in print. Also, they write for prominent national publications and programs, like The New York Times, “The TODAY Show,” Bon Appetit, and The Wall Street Journal.

Me? Still working on it.

Some people would feel disheartened to continue at something others have achieved. Many folks might see their peers’ accomplishment outshining their own efforts and feel like a schlub.

After all, I have a few aborted novels scattered across old computer files, more than a few limp short stories that never got traction, and only one completed full-length fiction draft in which I don’t feel a great deal of confidence.

I could feel like a loser.

But I don’t.

Seeing other people I know who have achieved publication at a level I haven’t quite yet achieved as a creative writer gives me heart. I see these folks in the same cohort-filled fleet with me, all of us paddling forward. If others in my group have made it, I’ve got to be somewhere close behind, right?

Especially as I haven’t stopped paddling.

Maybe if I saw their books prominently displayed in national bookstores while sitting on my hands, I’d feel badly. Yet I’ve chalked up a few business achievements and I haven’t neglected my writing in the process. Maybe work has pushed back my writing somewhat, but I’m still here, rowing upstream.

I hope you keep doing the same, whatever your passion.

Keep paddling, folks.