As a student at the time, I kind of felt like my only options as a nonfiction writer were to either jump on the personal essay bus or linger back at the station, hoping that some other heretofore unknown mode of transportation was going to magically show up to take me where I wanted to go.
Accepted in Christ, we now run the race 'for the joy that is set before us' rather than 'for fear that comes behind us'.