Mare, thank you for the privilege of reviewing your very encouraging testimonial essay!

As we know the following words are my own thoughts. I do hope some of them will encourage you along your road as a writer as you have encouraged me, that the road of being a paid writer does, indeed, exist.

"...late in life..."? "...45..."? My, aren't you just the young lady? ;) That's not intended to be flippant or flirty. It's intended to be seen as being complimentary. I see 45 as being still quite youthful, since the students I taught in my sixth-grade classes, when I was just out of college in the late 1980s, are now in their early 40s.

Overall Impression: This is a very encouraging piece with great hope for those of us, who wish to retool our careers after a couple of decades or more already in the work-force. I can give a big hearty "AMEN!" to your experiences, since many of them happened practically the same way to me. After teaching school , working as a radio announcer, preparing to serve in radio ministry overseas, working as a product vendor in Wal-Mart, Dollar General, K-Mart and sundry other stores, (all of these items for a few years each,) I stopped to reevaluate my life because at that moment we were having our only child. I, too, was scammed out of about 5 C-notes once. I joined another writers' website a few years ago, where I sold a few pieces of my writing, usually with the remuneration being just a few dollars.

Nothing is wasted in GOD's Economy. Therefore, in His chosen and best time, I have full confidence, that it will all come together for me, too. Thank you so much for the reminder of this! :D

Suggestions: Change your article? I'm not sure I could, even if I wanted to do so. My only real suggestion would be to please write more of these to encourage more people like us, who have found ourselves in a very untenable place in life, who want to provide for ourselves and our families, and who need solid and amazingly tangible hope, that life is not over for us.

We need to be reminded that many of history's greatest success stories were written by people, who were well past 40, 50 & 60. I've kept going because Grandma Moses STARTED painting at about 80 years of age. As I recall Harlan Sanders was in his 60s, when he started selling his special recipe, that became Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Few have been Mozart, who was already a prolific musician by the age of three or four. He left a wealth of music to the world, which has probably been much more appreciated, since his death than during his lifetime. Yet, let us not forget, that he died, not having lived to see 36 years of age, burned-out, rumored to be debauched and ignominiously buried in an unmarked grave, the whereabouts of which has remained a mystery to this very day.

I suppose being a slow-starter doesn't look quite so bad by comparison. ;)

Punctuation/Spelling/Grammar: The structural aspect of English in this piece is very good. No worries.

What I Like: You are a success story for me! You give me hope, that I merely need to remain true to this chosen profession of using my GOD-given talent for writing. Sooner or later I can expect that others will recognize my talents. That has begun to happen right here on Writing.Com. We're both in the Rising Stars Program! (Congratulations to you, by the way!) I am currently seeing my profile featured in the Newbies Academy!

Thanks for reading my review of your essay! I hope it has been as beneficial for you as it has been a catharsis for me! :D This writer gains inspiration from your life, Lady! Great essay! WRITE ON!!!

A Rising Star Member to Member review.

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