There are teachers who inspire us to dream and there are teachers who attempt to squash those dreams. Thankfully, today’s Meet a Poppy, Julie Cantrell, rose above the negative feedback from a high school teacher. Here’s what she had to say …
“”Don’t waste your scholarship to study writing. You’ll never make it as a writer.” Those were the final words of advice I received from my high school English teacher. It was the final day of my senior year, and, at seventeen years old, I took the advice to heart.
I put down my pen, and I didn’t pick it up again for nearly a decade. I had spent my entire youth writing in journals, penning poems and songs and long letters, and since my 9th grade year I had been exploring fiction with dreams of someday, somehow becoming an author. But in those two short sentences, that one teacher changed the course of my life.
It was my first pregnancy that brought me back to the page. I started to journal again, writing for my unborn child. In many ways, I gave birth to her but she also gave birth to me. It was the beginning of a long road back to myself.”
Today, Julie is an award-winning New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author who recently released her fourth novel, PERENNIALS. Learn more about her journey in her inspirational TEDX talk, Know Thyself: Two Questions That Will Change Your Life.
Read the BookTrib review on PERENNIALS.
You can read more about Julie on her bio page.
And please join Julie as she hosts Bloom this week.
So excited that more readers will come to know Julie. She’s an encourager beyond compare, and someone I can always depend on when I need help–if life or writing!