A dream come true

What would you do if you won the lottery? Come on, you know the answer to that loaded question. Maybe you haven't ever admitted to your friends or relatives, or even your spouse, what you would sincerely do with that money, but deep down you know the answer.
While most of us answer something like "Buy a mansion..." or "Quit my job..." we know that neither of those would actually be fulfilling, no matter how many millions of dollars we may have just had fall into our lap by sheer luck. So...I'm waiting...what would you do if you won the lottery? Let me give you a hint - it should be that thing you are great at. You know the one thing in this world that stirs a passion deep within you that you finally get that fulfillment you have been searching the globe for. Got it? Alright, good.
Finding what you are passionate about in life isn't ever easy, but I have a lot to be thankful for because I found two of my loves at fairly young ages in life. Of course, it took being a grown up and realizing that I wish I could be nine years old to comprehend what those loves were. 
First, I love the outdoors. And I mean love them. When I say I wish I could be nine years old again, I mean it. I think about the camping trips I took as a young Girl Scout - sometimes jumping as I stepped too close to a snake or giggling into the wee hours of the night under a star-lit Texas sky. I think about my family's lake lot at Lake Fork - the smell of the buildings that my father and grandfather built by hand, the swing in the giant tree that overlooked our dock and, most of all, my curiosity for all things wild, mainly a sick turtle that I was so fond of, although I was never allowed to touch it.
Second, I love to write. I discovered this love, and a tiny bit of my talent as a sophomore in high school when a short story I wrote for English class awed my peers. The teacher did not appreciate the piece near as much as my classmates, but the small interest that my story drew led me to enroll in a creative writing class my senior year, where I awed, and appalled, again. As a sophomore in college, writing once again came to the forefront. I realized quickly that a career in the veterinary industry was not cut out for me. As I said earlier, I love all things wild, but I would prefer to continue my appreciation for them on a friendly level. So, with several hours of agriculture under my belt, I did a 180 in college and switched my major to communications - journalism and public relations to be exact. It was my very last semester when I realized how fulfilling writing actually was for me. Several years, and several awards later, I was on the fast-track to becoming a hot-shot in a small Fort Worth suburb at a community newspaper, where the residents touched me as much as my stories touched them.
In 2010 I returned to graduate school and stopped writing, well everything except term papers that is. And I realized something - I miss it. I miss it terribly.
So I decided to write again - and then I got writer's block. 
"I know I need to write," I thought to myself. "But what do I write about."
I could write the great American novel...but that might take the rest of my life.
I could write about being a single girl....but we already have Sex and the City.
But in the end, it all came back to the question I asked at the beginning of this blog - If you won the lottery what would you do?
Well, I know the answer to that - that's easy: I would travel to all of the state parks in Texas and write about them.
Welcome the birth of Texas Tails & Trails - a blog about everything wild in Texas. 
Some of you will be delighted to know, and others may groan, that I have no time frame for finishing this project. The good news is that as long as I am able to travel and learn about Texas I can blog about it.
My goal is to blog a minimum of three times a week, but strive for five times. I will cover everything from wild animals to camping and cooking tips and activities that take place in Texas State Parks. 
This blog is truly a dream come true for me. I am looking to my adventure, or should I say adventures, and I hope you, my reader are too. Please feel free to leave comments and even make suggestions on which park I should visit next!
Thank you...and happy trails.