Unboxing my first ten copies

When I heard the news, it was just after I collected my bag to leave cross country practice when my phone rang; it was my mom who'd been off work that day. I answered and I could see her smile as she said with giddy excitement, "Something's here for you!". My eyes lit up, I new exactly what that something was, I had been anxiously checking the mail for them all of last week...The first copies of my book, my dream and love finally arrived.

My excitement seemed to extend time, each passing moment making my heart pound faster with anticipation, the box, the books, the year long wait finally coming to an end and my career as an author just beginning. The ten-fifteen minute drive home in the passenger seat of my dad's Nissan took forever. The time moved only by the brief conversations between my dad and I and the music we listened to.

When we reached the drive way, I hopped out of my seat and ran to the door and into the main hall. Where I looked into the mini dinning room to see the package waiting for me on the table. Mom was in the kitchen, preparing dinner when she look into the dinning room and smiled, "excited?". I don't remember what I said in response but the feeling of an undefined rush moving up my throat combined with a familiar anxiousness. I've felt it before each time a step of the publishing process was complete. The "what ifs" fogged my mind, "what if the print's wrong?", "What if I missed another error?", and "What if I have another four weeks?".

Luckily, when I finally did open the box in the living room surrounded by our little household, I was relieved to see that I had worried for nothing. I opened the first book, what felt was the first real accomplishment of my young life and smelled the fresh, previously unopened pages; which my family had found hilarious. Unsurprisingly, the book had little to no smell, certainly not the distinguished smell of an old hard bound, but I wasn't expecting it to because it was new. It was mine, it gave me relief, that all the stress, all the work and all that patience was at last worth it. I was an author now.