Jessica is back, safe and well after living the dream.

Great excitement in Sydney on Saturday morning as intrepid young sailor, Jessica Watson crossed the line in her yacht, Ella's Pink Lady, after her round the world trip of 210 days. Apparently she started planning it when she was 14 years old after being inspired by Jessie Martin's sail when he was 16 years old. What euphoria as she sailed into glorious Sydney Harbour, accompanied by a flotilla of boats, who wanted to be in on the action at the end. Thousands lined the shores, right up to the Opera House, where a pink carpet was laid in her honour.

Jessica sailed off amongst much controversy. Many (me included) thought she should not take the risk. But she has lived her dream and inspired countless others. She always says the same thing in interviews: anyone can live their dream. It takes hard work, but there is nothing you cannot do if you believe in yourself. To quote Walter Bagehot:

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

All of our dreams cannot possibly come true if we have too many, but some of them certainly can. Living the dream. Nothing like it.



As Sylvia Plath used to say:

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

Are you in the middle of a Jessica Watson challenge?

Some of you may know of the 16 year old Aussie girl, Jessica Watson, who is nearing the end of her around-the-world nautical journey. She left amongst endless debate regarding whether her parents should have let her go etc. As a mother of 3 daughters I cannot imagine letting one of them launch off into such a fraught trip. I've been worried about this kid ever since I heard she was going. Well, she is back in Australian waters and on the last leg of her journey, so I'm starting to relax a little, and feel a little sheepish.

Reading about Jessica's exploits in the weekend papers, I was struck with the idea that how dare I (and many others) deny Jessica the right to follow her goals! I realised there are a lot of parallels between her exploits and those of a writer. This is a short list:

• There would have been oodles of preparation before Jessica even thought of setting off - how much preparation is involved in planning a novel? a short story? Some people just sit down and wait for inspiration to come, whilst others, like moi, like to have a plan before I launch.
• In her planning, Jessica knew she had to face notorious seas, different condition, things that would challenge her to the nth degree - don't we? We know once we type/write that first sentence, phrase, that we have thousands to go, we are sailing into unknown seas...
• Jessica has faced strong winds, rough seas, and so do we. Especially in the middle of a piece - which way will I go? I wish these characters would behave themselves instead of dragging me every which way...I'd like to drown the lot of them!
• Jessica ate chocolates as she crossed the Equator, so that's an upside. It's not all challenges and danger! I eat chocolate every chance I get. When the story is getting me down, chocolate always makes me feel good.
• Jessica has been through violent storms, where she said the best thing to do was to belt up and hold on. Excellent advice for writers - how many times do we want to trash the piece, hide it in the bottom drawer (or a computer file we'll never open again). No, as any NaNoWrMo writer knows (or any other fraught writer will experience), belt up, hold on, you'll get through this storm.
• Okay, Jessica will have completed a 23,000 nautical mile journey when she hops off her 10 m yacht in Sydney. How many thousands of words will you have written when your current journey ends? Like Jessica, victory is close.