In a writing group
I belong to,
a writer posts
at least once a week
that she’s going to quit.
Other writers
tell her she can’t quit.
They encourage her,
share their own
almost quitting stories with her.
They convince her
to continue writing.
Then the next week,
she posts once again
that she’s going to quit.
The other writers
think they’re being kind
by encouraging her.
They aren’t.
They’re hurting her.
She doesn’t want to be a writer
badly enough
to be successful.
She SHOULD quit
and try a business
she loves more.
If someone continually wants to quit,
say nothing
and let them do that.
A coworker of mine has been doing the same thing.
She has no other options – her car had been repo’d and her apartment lease expired and she moved in with a boyfriend – so I’d been encouraging her to stick with her job.
But I stopped.
She doesn’t want to support herself and it’s just making things worse at work.