Pursuing a Childhood Dream in My 50th Journey Around the Sun

I turned 49 this weekend. A birthday dinner at the Taste of Maine with my wife and parents brought back a flood of childhood memories and a dream that’s been waiting over 40 years.

While we were eating, my sister and her husband called. What started as a happy birthday turned into a conversation about grandparents, family restaurants, and the rituals that shaped us growing up. Everyone in our family had their restaurant. The one you’d pick when it was your turn.

But is wasn’t just birthday rituals. It was also the weekly ones. Every Friday night from the time I was probably 5 to 10, my family drove to Lewiston for a weekly routine that included dinner at a tiny pizza place and time at Bookland, a now defunct bookstore. While my mom did the grocery shopping, my sister and I were set free to explore the bookstore.

Somewhere in those Friday nights, surrounded by all those books, I decided I wanted to write children’s books. I think I was probably 7.

Then life happened. School, sports, work, building businesses. The dream didn’t disappear. It just waited.

Now, at 49, I’ve picked it back up. I’ve written the manuscript for two children’s books and I’m planning to self-publish before I turn 50. They’re for kids, and for the grownups reading to them. They’re for everyone who’s been told to put a part of themself away. And for every person who unfortunately did.

Read the full piece on Substack.

Learn more about the adventure at www.heart-strong.org