Santiago reflects on his glory days . . .
For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion and there had been a return match in the spring. But not much money was bet and he had won it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from Cienfuegos in the first match. After that he had a few matches and then no more. He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing. He had tried a few practice matches with his left hand. But his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do and he did not trust it.
The sun will bake it out well now, he thought. It should not cramp on me again unless it gets too cold in the night. I wonder what this night will bring.
I have had some good fortune in my life. I won a full-ride scholarship to go to college. Teaching and doctoral assistantships to go to graduate school. I sent my first manuscript of poems to one prospective publisher, and it was accepted. When I was in high school, I entered a playwriting competition. I didn't win, but I did receive a signed letter from Stephen Sondheim, talking about my script and telling me how much he liked it. I was served as Upper Peninsula Poet Laureate. Twice. A few years ago, I was given the Part Time Faculty of the Year Award by the university where I teach. Last year, I submitted a $20,000 grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Arts for the library where I work. We got it.
As you can see by that short little laundry list, I have been very lucky in my professional life. Of course, I worked very hard for every lucky thing that's happened to me. Lots of late nights, long hours, and personal sacrifices. Most of the time, what some people call "luck" is the result of a little talent, a lot of late nights, and tenacity. When she was a young, working mother, Toni Morrison would get up at 5 a.m. to write before her kids woke. Then she punch a time clock as an editor at a publishing house. She did this for years and years before she became a full-time writer and won the Pulitzer and Nobel.
There are no such things as overnight success stories. There are, however, overnight recognition stories. That's when people work their asses off for a long time and finally someone notices. Again, luck has nothing to do with it. It's all about sweat and resilience. Never giving up.
Here's the other side of the coin: professional success doesn't always coincide with personal happiness. In fact, those two conditions rarely go hand-in-hand. There is always a price to be paid for any kind of success. I try to keep that in mind whenever I see someone who seems to be on top of the world. Even saints face long nights of the soul, when God seems as distant and silent as the stars.
Saint Marty is still waiting to be an overnight Nobel Laureate.
Please vote for my sister-in-law Cindi for this contest. She has earned her "overnight" success:
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