Edna St. Vincent Millay

“I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it, I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes”.

I wonder what mistakes Edna was talking about? Her work? Her personal life? The politics she became involved in? Millay’s overall demeanour appeared to be un-apologetic, but who knows? It is a hard task to truly read someone by the limited amount they choose to give to the world.

I thought this was a great quote because how many mistakes turn into blessings in digsuise? We all have the orginal path or “plan a” to hopefully follow, but, for reasons unknown, life gets in the way, and next thing you know, your on mystery “plan b”. All you can do is hope that life will eventually guide you in the right direction.

Who knows where we would all be without our errors and also the dream that something more will come out of it. I guess possibly some will end up living montonous lives with no tricks or surprises….I hope to continue to live where the world is constantly surprising me and pushing me to my limits.

I have been on interviews over the past few years, and a popular question has been, “where do you think and hope you’ll be in 5 years? 10 year?”
My reply: ” Hahahaha, at this point, I could ONLY imagine”. Or…
“Hopefully I would have won the lottery and then would only be traveling and working if I was in the mood…or bored, but yeah that probably won’t happen!”
How do you answer that type of question without being a dreamer, when 5-10 years feels so far away? 10, even 5 years ago, I never would have imagined I’d be where I am. So it is exciting to wonder where any of us will be in the next decade.

Growing up, maybe Millay dreamed of being a celebrated poet and a Pulitzer Prize winner. I’m sure she never would have DREAMED that she’d end up being as successful as she was. Edna was probably like any of us with her doubts of her work and anxiety that no one would like it or understand. But the important thing is that she tried. And even after the amazing reviews and celebration on her behalf, she probably looked at her work and saw errors that no one else would notice. Probably the mistakes she made were not mistakes at all, but the actual path she was supposed to take.

My point here is that being a dreamer and making a mistake are two HUGE parts of life and should never be planned or denied. Where would you be without your dreams?