This Word Girl's Guide to Math (And How Dreams Add Up)

Time is funny—especially as you get older.

A lot of people ask me how long I’ve wanted to become an author, and my automatic answer is that it’s been a lifelong dream.

And that’s absolutely true.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize this dream didn’t happen overnight. It happened in pieces. In years. In numbers that quietly added up:

• 1980: The year I was born. Writing would become a quiet, thoughtful thread that ran through my life—especially helping me cope with the loss of my dad.

• 16: The age I started working at my hometown newspaper, The Muskegon Chronicle, setting in motion my goal of becoming a journalist and proving that words could be more than a hobby for me.

• 2002: I graduated from Michigan State University with my journalism degree on December 8, a date etched in history for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” address after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

• 2003: I became a reporter at The Detroit News that February.

• 5: The age my daughter was when I started writing my debut children’s book.

• 16: The age she is now. I guess my book grew up with her.

• 2009: On January 30, I posted on Facebook, “I will write a book before I die.” It was during the “25 random things about yourself” trend, and I listed this dream as No. 17.

• 2026: Last night, I think, was the first time I reread that list. When I saw that line – so full of hope, longing, and maybe a smidge of disbelief – I actually gasped out loud.

When you lay it all out like this, it’s hard not to see it as a kind of math. I’m a word girl, but even I can see the years adding up—ages overlapping, moments connecting in ways I couldn’t see at the time.

Time is funny like that. It moves fast and slow all at once.

I meant what I wrote back then. And now, all the doubt is gone—because in a few months, I’ll be an author. Somehow, all the numbers checked out.