Publish my Writing?

As you know, my Personal goals for 2012 involve the pursuit of my bachelor's degree. Last semester (Fall 2011), I took the course, Intro to Creative Writing -- one of the requirements for the Writing degree that I'm pursuing.

The last section of the course was focused on Non-Fiction Writing, which I really feel is my niche'. At the end of the unit, we had to submit a finished Non-Fiction essay, along with the drafts and revisions to that essay that we had worked on throughout the unit. The work was due on the last day of class which meant that the professor would not be able to grade and return the work before the end of the semester. She  told us that we could pick up the graded work in the next semester.

I knew that I had received a 100% grade on the work, but I wanted to see what comments the professor had made that could help me to improve my writing. So, I took advantage of her offer and asked her to send my graded work via campus mail.

When I opened the envelope that she had sent me, I was stunned! Her comment on my essay was "Excellent Essay -- worth trying to publish" and she had circled "worth trying to publish" twice for emphasis.

Seriously? It's publishable work? My writing is worth publishing?? I don't believe it! Almost a week later, I'm still in a state of unbelief!

Besides not believing it's publishable work, I'm struggling with whether or not I want to try to publish the essay. There are risks involved in publishing the essay. Do I want to share the essay with the world? I wrote about my experience. Do I want the world to know about these experiences? Although the focus of the essay was my experiences, I also included family members' experiences in the essay. Would they want me to share the essay with the world?

If I do decide to try to publish the essay, where do I begin? How does one submit an essay to a publisher? What type of publication is appropriate? There is a risk that the work will be rejected. How will I feel if my work is rejected? Will I stop writing?

All these questions...I've not been able to answer a single one of them. What am I going to do with the essay?

When I don't want to deal with an issue, I often ignore the issue, silently hoping that the issue will go away. I have done this with my essay. I have closed the envelope and shoved it between some folders on my desk. Out of sight -- out of mind? Well, temporarily, at least. And yet, the issue always sneaks back into my mind. I know that I need to resolve it. Yet, it is often easier to shove it back into the recesses of my mind.

I haven't resolved anything. I don't know when or if I ever will. And so, the essay resides between my folder. It's safer there.

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