“Surprise ‘em with a victory cry”

What is your career plan?

I used to be a major fan of the show “Glee”, though I didn’t watch the seasons after they graduated high school. One of my favorite songs that they covered was “Safety Dance”. None of their songs were original, so I know the original is from the 80s. But it was my favorite because the character who sang it was the one in a wheelchair who danced to it in a dream sequence. I downloaded the first Glee album and that song ended up on my “running playlist”. Those were the songs that I used to listen to when I was a runner.

I first started running to lose weight. The line from that song, “Surprise ’em with a victory cry” was the reason for adding it to the list of songs that motivated me to run. I always envisioned ending the school year looking a certain way. Then I would spend my whole summer dieting and running and then in the fall when I returned to school, I would surprise my coworkers with my victory cry, a thinner appearance.

Fast forward to right now. That song came up on my “random awesomeness” playlist when I was driving home from the store after work. I am no longer trying to surprise anybody with a thinner body. So I asked myself, what is my ‘victory cry’ now? It made me think of this prompt today.

My ultimate career plan is to be a writer that gets paid. I want to quit my Monday-Friday 8-5 job and stay at home writing and promoting myself online. The ‘victory’ will be when I finally publish writing that exposes the truth of what I have endured with my mental illness diagnoses. I’m working on a piece right now that also exposes what I went through at my old job and how it compares to childhood trauma and how I overcame it.

I’m using my voice to do that. I haven’t really ever used my voice until now. People closest to me have urged me to use it. They know how important it is for me. My therapist knows. My husband knows. I know how important it is. So I’m going to do it. I am doing it. I’m just not done yet. And when I am, when I have persevered and found someone to publish my words…to put them out there for everyone to read, that will be my victory cry. What will yours be?