I Think It's Important To E X P L O R E . . .

Really, I do. We have this whole world at our finger tips -- so many different cultures, cities, rolling hills, road-side diners. When I was a little girl, I told my mother that I wanted to live each year in a different place, simply so I could expereince the feeling of what it means to be a true part of said-place, & not just be a tourist. Now is the time for me to do just that. 

There are so many things I want to say; so many things I want to write about. The running list I keep is a compilation of singular moments, that will someday hopefully all come together to create something beautiful -- 

The time I was at a half-star motel in Arizona & saw a girl in an old high school sweatshirt sitting on the steps smoking a lonely cigarette. 

The feeling that goes along with sitting alone on your porch at night; listening to old "annnd here's Frank Sinatra!" tracks while eating Chinese out of cute little boxes as the breeze takes control of the world around you and sends a single soda can clicking down the empty street, momentarily interrupting poor Frank & the boys. 

When you take on a solo road trip, and that indescribable feeling of freedom hits you every time you realize the power & independence you hold in your hands as you grasp that wheel. 

When you cross a state line for the very first time, perfect song escaping on full volume out your open windows, and you know in your heart you will never be able to experience that "first" again. 

That one night you sat there under your hometown stars with the three people that mean the most to you in the world, playing cards by candle light & pretending like your universe wasn't about to be turned upside down in a few days by the deceptive force that commonly goes by the name of "college". 

Exploring is more than landmarks and theme parks. It's all of those feelings, expereinces, moments & more; and it's the people you expereince them with. So go drink a beer in Nashville; slide up onto a New York barstool & order a Manhattan like it's nobody's business; pop open a bottle of sparkling champagne in Paris. And you know those beautiful human beings who love you because you're you? Who you can't imagine living without? Pack them in your suitcase and bring them along. 

Someday, I will write a book. Someday, you'll be walking through Barnes & Noble and see my name there, on the "Up & Coming Fiction" table, between Maupin and Moyes. And your eyes will do a double-take. You'll pick it up, and some line like "I went to high school with this girl" or "Wow, when I knew her she was so quiet, is this really hers?" will run through your mind. And I hope you'll want to read it. 

It will be filled with moments like the ones above, and many more that I have not expereinced yet. So I suppose I'm just as in the dark as you are, friend-that-just-picked-up-my-future-novel. Who knows what's filling those pages; I sure don't, at least not yet. But I can assure you they will be living, breathing words that I hold dear to my heart -- and I hope you will be able to get some life out of them too. I hope they will encourage you to go out and start your own mod-podge of moments. You can't go looking for them, you simply have to go out and wait for them to find you. They will, I promise - and when they do, you'll be ready. You'll know when they arrive because a familiar yet completely unique sensation will come over you, and you'll know you absolutely, without a doubt, need to write this down.

That's why I want to try and tackle fiction for my Unfamilar Genre Project. I want to jump right into it, and write about things that effect me and stick with me as important. This also applies to my so-far expereinces I've had in the teaching program. Those moments where you are encouraged and affirmed that you are perusing the right career; when you know that this is your passion. When that student calls you over after you just taught your first solo lesson on apostrophes and says, "Miss McCrillis! I just found the perfect way to remember the differences between its and it's!" There are still some students out there that are excited about learning, and our job as future teachers are to encourage them as well as other students who don't exactly love learning (yet). There will be some hard days, but there will also be moments after moments like the one mentioned above; and those are the moments I want to teach for. I want students to learn to love writing and realize their own purpose behind the pen; and to know that they can change the world's perspective by sharing their own. 

My goal for this class is to start working on the rough outline of my Unfamilar Genre Project within the next few weeks, and the start writing the rough draft. I want to get my ideas out on the page, and then go back and edit, edit, edit. I want it to be an evolving work that is constantly changing and getting better. With my writing group helping me out, I don't see how this will not work. This will be a writing success story for me, and I know that at the end of the semester I will feel extremely accomplished. Hopefully someday I'll look back and still feel motivated from the work I have done this semester, and be thankful for it as well. I want it to be a stepping stone towards future writing I will do, like my own book someday. I think learning to collaborate with my writing group is a huge step in the growing process for me -- learning to open up and accept criticism as well as praise is something I need to work on. Learning this skill will prepare me and help me to become a stronger and more confident writer.