When I was writing "Eagle Born to Fly", the passion was exhilarating, to a level I can honestly say I've NEVER felt before or since. I knew to the core of my being that this was good and right. But as soon as it was finished, the doubts, second-guessing and negativity roared in...it's no good, nobody could possibly want to read this.

But instead of hiding it away as I was tempted to do, I sent it to one of my best friends to read. Not to critique, but just to tell me if this was worthwhile pursuing. The whole time my "baby" was in his hands, I was so foggy and confused. But he sent it back saying, "you can't keep this to yourself. It's exquisite (his words)." Then he suggested that I write it chronologically instead of the format I had used.

I was a little crushed by that, more because of the immense amount of work it would take to change it. But once I sat down and began to revise it, it flowed like a mountain stream, and indeed, it made much more sense, and allowed me to include things that hadn't fit into the earlier format.

The rest is history. Eagle will never be a best-seller, but it's MINE, my voice, my vision, my passion, my story. If I had passed it around to 50 people, with my poor self-image and lack of confidence in my own vision, it would have ended up being someone else's story, or a confusing mish-mash of everyone else's vision and story.

Stay true to you. Stay true to the passion that made you start writing this essay in the first place. Stay true to the story that you want it to be when all is said and done, and to the voice that you want it to be told in.