ABOUT Wendy VanHatten...

Question: What does a successful health care administrator do when her position is eliminated?

Answer: Cry? Nope, wrong answer.

Next answer: Travel the world? That worked for me. Actually I didn't really travel the world. But, this favorite quote by Susan Sontag sums it up for me? I haven't been everywhere yet but, it is on my list.

How and when I got started traveling dates clear back to traversing the United States as a kid. When your dad says you will see 48 of the 50 states by the time you graduate from high school, you put a lot of miles on the family car. We didn't travel by plane back then. It was also suggested that I should take notes (they are called journals now). Maybe it was to keep my brother and me occupied during treks through the deserts of the southwest. Or perhaps our parents wanted some peace and quiet on those endless roads across boring North Dakota.

Never let go of a dream until you are ready to wake up and make it happen. 

Fast forward through college and then to the health care career. Life has a funny way of taking you where you should be and health care and I were destined to part ways. It just took a life altering jolt to get me back into writing. Was I bored with life and just didn't know it? A friend suggested writing as a career. Intrigued, I thought "why not?" Did I need a change of self and was this the time to make it?

I never pictured myself as a "writer," even though I had done plenty of it during those family trips. What I wouldn't give to find those journals and notebooks now. I am almost certain they sound like the typical "what I did on my summer vacation" story. Start at the beginning of the trip, write down everything you see and do, add in a few funny things that happened to your brother, and voila a travel story. Okay, maybe not a real travel story.

This time was different. Since I was going to make a real effort at writing as a career, maybe I had better get some direction…real direction from real writers.

 Becoming "published" is a writer's goal and I was armed with all the right tools. Many attempts and dozens of articles later I landed my first "clip," an article published in an online e-zine. Wow! You would have thought I landed a cover spread with National Geographic.

No matter, it was a clip and I was on my way. At that point success as a bona fide writer was actually within my reach. Success never looked so good. Today I have been published by both international publications and ones based in the United States.

Confidence grew from a small seed planted by a friend's encouragement to "try."

Directly on the heels of my new career as a freelance writer, a book idea popped into my head. Well, actually it was suggested by a friend of our son. Still, I wrote it and a publisher picked it up. Wow, again! Now I am a published author of a real live book.

One setback in my health care career had the potential to put me in a spot where I didn't want to be. Until, that is, I realized it was just a setback. I didn't need to live there. With some help along the way, I started to believe in myself. I visualized myself as a writer...a good writer.

Editing followed. Not really such a giant step and I learned I had a knack for it. Again courses, workshops and perseverance propelled me into a viable editing business. Editing manuscripts for authors led me to join forces with a book designer, formatter and marketing guru.

Today, my writing and editing career has put me where I want to be. Do I look at things differently? You bet. I dare to dream and see where it takes me. Success for me was not only a choice...it was the only choice.