When I was thirty, and a long time after that, I felt like I had to leave home to do what I had to do. Now, it's just the opposite.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When I first decided I was going to have a go at writing a book - and really, it was a mid-life crisis - I was 39. I was in business with my husband; we had a very busy lifestyle and quite a hectic schedule running this flourishing business in travel, and I found myself waking up and realising that I didn't want to do this anymore.
Somehow I got the feeling at an early age that I had to do something important with my life.
My career always took me away from home, I was always away from home and I just wanted to be at home.
The desire to do different things was the main motivator that made me leave late night because I'd been there seven years. The combination of an entrepreneurial desire to see how far I could push my success and a short attention span. But now I've done other things. And I'm sort of ready to sit somewhere and sit in the same place for a while.
At 30 I thought my life was over. I thought I'd have made something of myself by then, that life would somehow have made the necessary arrangements - but actually I had nothing.
I'm still a kid. I'm like six years old. But it's just a matter of wanting to get up, it's just a big journey. I felt like when I left home that I was on a journey, and I still am.
At 32, I kind of thought I was past the point where I was gonna get a break that really changed my life overnight.
When I turned 30, I realised the value of time and with it, the other important things in life. That's when I did up my house, started spending time with my family and friends and did all that a normal girl would do. All these things I was balancing with my work.
I wanted to leave home, and I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do or what would happen. That's youth, though. Being fixated on things. I was fixated on being a writer.
When I was 17, I decided I was going to leave home.