Can you believe it was a year ago since my book was published? I remember signing my publishing contract in 2022, thinking that the book’s publication was so far away in the distant future. Now, a whole year past publication, it feels so surreal!
A whole year passed publication and I still am not quite back on my feet with blogging yet, I do apologise it’s just been so hectic! This feeling has left me lost recently, last year was so special with publication and then I had a lot of events lined up after that. Yet, now, in all honesty, I’m quite deflated, I thought I would be able to do a lot more work around the book within a year than I have. My goal was to set up a training course and do all sorts, being completely honest I even feel like I’ve lost my ability as a writer. I write blogs and I’m not happy with what I’ve written, in fact, I’ve just deleted 2 paragraphs in this very blog.
Yet setting up a training course about challenging ableism in healthcare, although the dream is not a reality for me. I admire people who do this work full time but I am not confident in myself to do so nor will I ever be and I also have too much love for my job. Don’t get me wrong I’d love to drop a few days at work to be able to do freelancing more, but I don’t feel that I can do so at this point in my life. This means that I am so fatigued from working that when I write a blog it doesn’t come as naturally to me as it once did and I often don’t know what to write about as I don’t want to repeat myself however nor do I want to give anything away INCASE I write another book. I said incase it’s just a thought don’t expect an Instagram posting announcing a second book anytime soon because unfortunately, I do not have enough energy at the minute!
However, although I feel deflated as I’ve not achieved as much as what I hoped to achieve within a year of my book being published I am still proud of what I have achieved and the year I’ve had. This year I’ve had the opportunity to talk to many healthcare professionals about ableism and not just occupational therapy which has been incredible. To me, that’s the real impact as all healthcare professionals need to be talking about it no matter where you work!
I have also been to a few conferences this year and have submitted abstracts to more which I never would have had the confidence to do before writing the book and it is invaluable that my self-confidence and belief are growing. But, you know what, also my book is not going away anytime soon. A lot of people ask me how the book is selling and most of the time my answer is ‘I don’t know’. I have some ideas but to me, it’s not about numbers I’m never going to be a well-known author and activist and yeah if I did a bit more I could certainly be more known. Yet to me, it’s about making a difference no matter how big as we all know the real difference comes through collective action.
I’m proud of my first year, who knows what my second year will bring maybe I’ll find more confidence to pick up more freelancing, but for the time being I’m enjoying doing some research behind the scenes that I feel greatly passionate about.
Thank you for all your support!
Georgia x
