In the course of an hour at work today, two people mentioned things to me about my writing and writing instruction. Yes. I write things other than what Major U pays me to. And if that was a secret, I wouldn’t be writing it here, under my own name.

And just this morning before these conversations, I read an article about power. (OK, it was in Oprah magazine—it’s a good magazine!) (OK, it was by Dr. Phil—you can make fun of me.) Anyway, the article was a list of ways you could take the power back in your life, and damn if I didn’t have most of them checked the heck off. Have something you’re passionate about? It’s true. Being passionate about writing and making that priority makes me feel pretty powerful. It makes me calmer, happier, able to put things into perspective.

You wouldn’t want to know me, if I stopped writing.

I’ve stopped for the night, though. 786 words today, bringing the first week’s Write-a-thon total to 5,422 words. I can assure you that is 5,422 words I probably would have put off, if I hadn’t been challenged by my class. I hope they are having the same levels of success. How cool would that be?