Our Story Matters Most

Dreams fade, stories lives on.

[kris krüg | Flickr | modified]

It’s our story that will remain when we pass, our dreams, however, will quietly pass with us.

Our story is who we are, our dream is who we want to be.

My dream is to be a writer, and my story is The Millennial Way.

The Millennial Way is not a self-help book. It’s not a formula for success. Rather it’s a beacon of self-awareness and clarity to one’s journey.

Some may see it as just another self-help book. Some may think it promises success if you do X, Y, and Z. It’s neither of those.

The Millennial Way is now part of my story, and it wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the unique stories of five millennials.

Their stories will take some time to tell, and tell them I shall in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, allow me to share mine first…

My story: Childhood – High School

I grew up a smart kid. At an early age I knew I would be an engineer. My late grandmother pegged me as an engineer when I was 2 years old.

I excelled in math and science courses. I even skipped an entire grade of math so I could take a pre-algebra class in 6th grade.

But I also loved art and story telling. I spent hours sketching in notebooks (many of which I still own) and even took a stab at short story writing.

This love faded during high school when I dropped my art classes for the more practical engineering based classes.

I applied to one college my senior year, The University of Pittsburgh, and was accepted before Thanksgiving break. I breezed through my final year and earned college credits by scoring 5’s on all my AP tests.

College – Real World

In college, I enrolled as an engineering student, but a nagging desire to create art bubbled up to the surface.

I dabbled in filmmaking after the prominent rise of YouTube in the mid to late 2000’s. Fascinated by the idea of bringing to life stories in my head, I considered filmmaking as a career choice.

But life nudged it’s way between me and my dream.

As graduation approached I all but abandoned filmmaking. It’s an expensive and time consuming hobby for a college student. Plus I had more responsible things to worry about, such as landing a job after college.

However, during my junior year, I found my next greatest love by accident: blogging.

My girlfriend, and future wife, loved to cook and wanted to share our recipes with our friends. A friend of ours suggested we start a blog and so we did: Cooking in College.

For 3 years we shared our kitchen adventures to over a million people all over the world. But after graduation, I got a job and we were no longer college students cooking on a college budget. So we closed up shop.

We were in the real world now.

Real World – Today

Two years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I figured I would just work full-time for the time being and figure it out later.

So I started this blog to help chronicle my journey.

For the past two years, I’ve transparently shared what I’ve learned from being a twenty-something with a desire to make something of their life.

The more I wrote, the clearer my something became: I need to be a writer.

I sought the advice of other millennials who seemed to have all the answers. I didn’t know how to chase my dream nor did I have the confidence to do so.

After a year of interviews and soul searching, The Millennial Way was born. It not only became part of my story, it helped my wife and I reach the inevitable: I am a writer and need to write for a living.

I am a writer and need to write for a living.
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We put in place a three year plan for me to leave full-time analytical work to be a stay-at-home dad with creative pursuits. Currently, we’re in the middle of this plan. It’s tedious, time consuming, and requires a lot of patience on my end.

I’m writing my story and The Millennial Way is now part of it.

The Millennial Way is available for pre-order!

For a limited time, snag a copy for $0.99 and submit your receipt here to receive a FREE audio version of the book!

Don’t own a Kindle? That’s okay click here to find out how you can still get your hands on a copy.

Offer ends June 22nd!

The post Our Story Matters Most by Declan Wilson appeared first on A Millennial Type.