Earlier this year one of my beautiful friends tagged me in a post on Instagram about a writing competition for a young women’s Christian magazine. I screenshot it and one afternoon while I was sitting in my room mindlessly flicking through my pictures, I came across the screenshot and decided to give it a go. Instead of asking ‘why?’ I asked ‘why not?’ What did I have to lose anyway?

Almost two months past and I still hadn’t received anything from the magazine. To be honest, I had forgotten about the competition altogether – I had other priorities such as Uni and work.

Well here’s where things start to get exciting. This morning I religiously checked my emails, dreading what new Uni readings I would have to annotate by next class. Little did I know that one email in particular was going to open new doors for me. I clicked on an email from a lady whom I had never met, nor heard of. In short, it was referring to a new magazine issue that was being published soon and how she was looking for articles relating to the theme. She finished by thanking the team and signing off with a few “x’s”. I selected the email and was about to press ‘delete’ when I stopped, re-read the email and thought, what are the chances of this being an accident?

I decided to reply to the stranger and asked her to confirm if I was meant to have received the email. She replied within minutes apologising for the confusion and informing me that she would love to have me on board the team of writers. This meant that I would have the ability to contribute to the MICI (Made In Christ’s Image) Magazine through my writing. In case you needed reassurance  – I said yes.

Inspiring people through my writing is something I have always dreamt of doing and slowly, but surely, it is finally becoming a reality. It’s amazing what can happen when you take chances, step outside your comfort zone and try new things. One open door can lead to so many wonderful new opportunities and experiences. So just take that first step. Be courageous. Try something different and be bold.

So before you select what could be a new opportunity to achieving your dreams and click ‘delete’, stop for a moment and think, what do you have to lose? Give it a go and just do it.

Keep smiling. x