You Did the Hard Part—Now Celebrate It

You can stop and clap for yourself.

Seriously.

Take a second.

Breathe it in.

Let yourself feel it.

You wrote a book.

You published it.

You did the thing most people only talk about.

That’s not small.

That’s massive.

Because it wasn’t easy, was it?

The late nights.

The rewrites.

The doubts that crept in and whispered, Who’s even going to read this?

But you kept going.

And now? Your work is out there.

That’s what most authors get right.

They step into something difficult.

They put their voice on the page.

They open themselves up to being seen.

And that?

That’s worth celebrating.

So let’s do that right now.

Tell me—

What’s one thing that’s happened since you launched your book that you’re most proud of?

I’ll go first.

In April, I get to fly up to visit OSU, where my niece is attending.

She and her friends read my book, and they felt it so deeply that they got the Arab Student Union to bring me in to speak.

That’s my exact avatar—my nephew, my niece. The younger version of me who desperately wanted to feel heard and seen...

I’m beyond grateful that my book didn’t just sit on a shelf.

It moved her.

It moved her friends.

It led to an opportunity I could have only hoped for: sharing my story, my experience, in person—to help move a younger version of me toward their own greatness.

Now, your turn.

What’s a moment—big or small—that made you stop and think, Wow, this is why I wrote my book?

#risingauthors #gardenwarrior