My Short Stories

Never Give Up On Our Dreams

This story is about a little girl who loved to write.

When she was six, she wrote her first story. It was about a rabbit named Rabbit, who had measles.

Then she told it to her mother, who loved it and praised her. She also encouraged her to write more.

When she was at school, she was shy and very unsociable. She would have her own world, a world of fantasy.

She would always write something into her little notebook.

When she was 15, her grandma, which she was very close to, died.

It was sad, but it was just the beginning.

Her relationship with his father went bad. Her mother was sick with a brain disabling disease, which made her more sick day by day.

It was the biggest shock of her life and soon, her mother died. It was a big loss for her.

Then time went by and one day, she was reading a local newspaper. There was an advertisment for a job as an english teacher in Portugal.

She took the opportunity to start a new life, she went to Portugal to teach.

One day, she met a journalist in a bar, who liked Jane Austen, just like her. They enjoyed each other's company, growing closer and closer to each other.

After one year, they were happily married. The next year, she gave birth to a beautiful daughter.

But then, her life took a dark turn.

She became a victim of domestic abuse. Her husband would beat her, slap her, pull her hair and drag her to the bedroom. Finally, one day, her husband drove them out of their house.

With her newborn child, she left the country. She was unemployed, and was surviving through the state benefits. It was the money given by the government to people who are poor or ill.

This was a very dark period in her life. She was so poor that her friends helped her to pay the rent.

She took care of her baby alone, as a single parent. Sometimes, she wouldn't eat so her baby could eat more.

She considered herself as a failure and she became depressed. She even tried killing herself, but her daughter inspired her to seek help. And then she did what she do best — writing fantasy novels.

She started writing more and more, forgetting all her problems for now. She would usually go to the cafe to write while her baby take a nap.

She doesn't have money to buy food at the cafe, so she would only order a cup of coffee, just so the owner would not drive her out.

In this way, she finished the first three chapters of her novel. She began sending it to publishers, but the answer was always no.

She received a lot of rejection letters from the publishers. After sending it to 12 publishers and getting a no every single time, she began losing confidence in her work.

Until one day, the editor at the Bloomsbury Publishing Company decided to read her work. At that time, her 8-year-old daughter was there too. She loved the opening chapters and wanted to read what happens next. This made the publisher agree on publishing her book.

The publisher also told her to find a fulltime job, because she wouldn't make money writing fantasy stories for children.

In June 1997,  at the age 31, her first novel titled "HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE" had 1000 copies published.

When the readers read her story, the demand for her books rose dramatically.

Five months later, her book won its first award — Nestle Smarties Book Prize.

Soon, J.K. Rowling, went from the depressed, unemployed, single mom to one of the best selling author's of all time.

Her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is one of the best book ever written.

Forbes Magazine named J.K. Rowling as the first person to become a billionaire by writing books.

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As you can see in her story, hard work pays off. If we have a dream, and if we always get rejected, we shouldn't let this stop us. We should continue working hard to reach our dreams.

And if ever we fail, If ever we became rock bottom of our life, we shouldn't let that stop us. When we are at our lowest, we should use that as our foundation for reaching our goal.

We should try again to reach our goals, while staying humble and down to earth.

If ever we fail, please remember her words,

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you lived so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case, you fail by default"

-J.K. Rowling