Writing is Not a Profession

For most of my life, whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would without hesitation say, "Writer."  My mind has always been fixated on writing "professionally," as my living.  But I look around, I look at the fabulous community of writers I'm a part of, all of them talented in their own ways, all of them deserving to go and become successful authors.  Then I see the small amount of people who actually make it as a successful, "professional" author - so few.  So many of the writers I know, and very likely myself included, will probably never amount to be as famous a well-read as they deserve to be.  Sure, we will be published in small degrees, impacting our little corners of the world (and, so I don't sound like the pessimist I am, the pebbles we drop there will help start the avalanche on the world), but possibly none of us will reach a point of the thing everyone desires: success.  There is only one J. K. Rowling, and there are a million talented authors which will amount to very little, which will remain nameless and unread to the general public.  From this point of the view, the business of being a writer is discouraging to say the least.  I think it's also the wrong point of view.
Writing isn't a profession, it's a culture.

When someone asks you what you're planning to be "when you grow up," don't tell them writer.  Tell them accountant, electrical engineer, botanist, and teacher.  These are professions, some of many we all must take up in order to support ourselves and achieve some degree of that elusive societal standard of "success."  If someone asks you, "What are you?" then you must answer, "A Writer."  Being a writer isn't something you're becoming, it's something you are.  I know for me, I will always be writing, when I'm old, when I'm sad and when I'm happy, when the world is crumbling around me and the sky is falling I shall be writing.  God put in me a raging desire to spill out words, so spill out words I must, and that is what makes me a writer. 
The way I see it, all artists are part of a giant "culture" (and this includes musicians and painters, sculptures and poets, artists of all sorts).  We support each other, we help each other, we war with each other, and we're all united with the passion for creating.  Just to be part of this is beautiful and fulfilling.  When we turn writing into a profession, when we treat it as something we're aiming "to be," we lose what it is to be a Writer.
Artists WANT to create -- it's a desire in them that can never be fully satisfied
"Professionals" work because they have to support their day to day needs. 
Don't get the two mixed up.
So the next time you feel discouraged and feel like you'll never become a professional writer, don't worry. You really already are.          

^(OvO)^