One Year

I recently read an article about an aspiring author whose friend decided to pay the author’s wages for one full year. The only stipulation was that the author would spend her year finishing a novel. That author was Ernest Hemmingway. And within that gift of a year he completed “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

After rereading the article to my dad, he put the question to me, “If someone were to pay your wages for a full year, what would you do with that year?” The weight of that question hit me. Ernest Hemmingway must have felt it too, because his novel have stood as a milestone in literature for decades. The weight of having someone believe in you, and to go as far as to back their words up with an investment is not only a blessing, but a heavy responsibility; one that I would imagine would stir the recipient to do something extraordinary.

In a manner of speaking, we too have been given one life to squander or to fill, although there was a much larger sacrifice made on our behalf than a year of wages. We need to be reminded that our time is so much more precious than we could ever possibly imagine, and someone invested in us so that we might write a novel of our own that the world will take notice of.

If given the opportunity, what would you do with your year?