#Blogtober14 Best Advice I've Been Given

Writers need advice. Writers thrive on advice. We survive on advice. Without advice we might as well throw away all the blank paper in the house, close the laptop, and stop calling ourselves writers. Just think about it. We look to others for new topics to blog about, write articles for major publications about, write books about, and even come up with movies. Yes, the producers behind movies started off as writers. Advice is what makes us who we are.

On this beautiful rainy Sunday the topic is all about the best advice you've been given. I've been given tons of advice on just about everything. A lot of it I've had to work hard to forget, because it wasn't positive. However, there is some good advice I've held onto. I'll give you two.

1. Speak Up and Be Heard
I don't remember her exact words, but Priscilla Slade (former Texan Southern University president) was one of my mother's college professors. I was a very disciplined child and often very quit around adults. I was definitely quiet meeting her and she told me to speak up. She said I was very petite, so I needed to not be so shy or people would always try to take advantage of me.

I'm 27 now and even with speaking up I have a history of people trying to take advantage of me, act as if I don't matter, and playing victim when I stood up for myself.

2. Keep Writing
I don't know how many times I've heard this one, but it's some advice I'll always remember. Each time someone says it to me, it means that much more. My poems aren't always good, I'm the only one editing my posts, and this isn't a paid gig. Writing is a passion and the biggest thing that keeps me wanting to wake up the next day. Well, writing and keeping the hope that everything will start to get better keep me wanting to see another day.

Plus hearing someone say they like my words and to keep doing it is a whole like better than "Why do you want to do that?"

Yesterday's post was "If You Were President." I purposely skipped that one.