A leap of faith

When the day finally arrived for me to board the plane to the Netherlands with my husband and two cats, I was terrified. I’d dreamt of living in Europe since my first trip to France when I was 12, but now that it was really happening, it felt like too big a leap.

But I set my fears aside and I got on that airplane. I endured the trans-Atlantic flight with two unsettled cats (yes, we brought them into the cabin with us), and the three nights in a gloomy airport hotel that followed, all the while telling myself the difficulty would be worth the payoff.

And you know what? As cliché as it sounds, it was.

Bit by bit, I began to build a new life for myself in a new country. My husband and I endured the pandemic, my son was born, and now our cats have lived as many years in the Netherlands as they did in the United States. Four years after first arriving, I can’t imagine living happily anywhere else.

Sending in your manuscript (or bio, or blog post, or recipe) to be edited is a bit like my journey to Europe; venturing into the unknown and making yourself vulnerable to the world is a scary thing. Both acts take leaps of faith—but both have immense payoff.

Are you ready to take that leap with me?