Classic Stories and Modern Tales
Hey all! I wanted to take a minute to tell you all about a new blog. One of my best friends in the world writes it, and you should all check it out because it is exactly what I’ve envisioned this blog being (and failed at!) except funnier. It’s really great to read, especially if you’re a young adult in the world, trying to figure it all out.
I know it’s on another site, but check it out anyway!
http://adulthoodbites.blogspot.com/
How finishing a novel feels:
How realizing this means revision comes next feels:
Finished my third complete novel tonight. I really should get to revising them, shouldn’t I?
I was in the 9th grade. In my reading class, we had to choose a classic book to read and do a presentation on. Any classic book. The year before, I had read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for this assignment. One friend was going to try to read Les Miserables. Another would be reading 1984. But I was lost.
So I went to my teacher for guidance. To this day, I don’t understand how she knew me so well. Yes, it was her second year as my teacher. Yes, I had her for a very small class. But how did she know so perfectly what book I would like? And that I would fall so deeply in love with it?
I don’t remember much of my first reading of The Great Gatsby. I remember gasping out loud at the end though, feeling heartbroken. I DO remember begging my parents for a copy and reading that copy once a year for the following ten years or so. I remember reading it in 11th grade English class and feeling superior because I was the only one who knew what was going to happen. I remember being terrified (but pleasantly surprised) by the movie with DiCaprio. What would they do to my favorite book?
No matter how many times I read it, I never get sick of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words or of the characters. In fact, I want to go and read it now.
Do you remember when you discovered your favorite book?
I am in the middle of grading midterms right now. This is what my apartment looks like. Ahhhh! Stressed stressed stressed!
I’ve now seen all 8 films nominated for Best Picture. I’m kind of a film buff. Usually, I have one movie that I latch on to, that I root for in almost every category. This year, not so much. But I did enjoy most of the movies. Here are my “in a nutshell” thoughts on the Best Picture nominees, in order from my favorite to least favorite.
Special shoutout to my favorite movie of the year: Ex Machina – How was this movie not nominated for everything? It was thought-provoking and intriguing and creepy as all get out! I can’t stop thinking about it.
What was your favorite movie of the year?
Do you ever reread your favorite books?
Do you ever reread your favorite books A LOT?
I’m currently reading Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series for the first time (it’s quite good, by the way), but I keep thinking about all of the books I want to reread right now. Pride and Prejudice. The Royal We. The Help. I’ve read them all before. In a few cases, I have read them several times. But I’m just in the mood to revisit my favorite characters again.
My mother thinks I’m crazy. She reads a book once and she’s done. Maybe I am crazy. My to-read list is insufferably long.
But I don’t know. When I think about my favorite books, they’re all about people and worlds that I feel like I’ve come to know. Sometimes, they’re filled with beautiful worlds. And I want to revisit them.
It’s like visiting an old friend.
Do you reread your favorite books multiple times?
I hate waiting.
I don’t consider myself the most proactive person out there or anything, but I would rather be working for my own destiny than waiting for something to happen.
Waiting and waiting and waiting.
I’m sure the anxiety doesn’t help. I get sick to my stomach. I get shaky. I forget out to breathe. And I agonize. I agonize over the wait and every little detail.
Tomorrow I find out if I have a job still or not. Maybe. How am I supposed to wait for that?
How am I supposed to get over my waiting nerves? How can I keep my mind off of it?
And what do I do if it’s bad news?
I read somewhere that whatever you do on New Year’s Day is what you will be doing for the rest of the year. I’m more superstitious than I care to admit, so I took it by heart. If superstitions prove to be true, then this is what I can expect from the rest of my year:
I can’t say that any of this is shabby. Especially all of the food.
What do you expect in your New Year?
I don’t know what I am going to blog about.
I usually like to plan these things in advance. I try to be interesting for you all. I really do.
Today though, everything is uncertain. My life, my job. I’m twenty-seven years old, and I don’t know for sure where I’m going to be in a month.
I envy the people in my life who don’t plan. I envy the people who can pick up and move across the country, without a job in line, without an idea of where they are going.
I like to know what’s coming next. I like stability and continuity. I’m not saying that every day has to be exactly the same, because how boring would that be? But I have a routine, and I like it.
When it goes away, when it gets taken from me, I feel like the rug is pulled out from under my feet. Where was the warning? Where is that stability I was promised?
The routine gives me control. I’ve been searching and searching for jobs and boyfriends and friends and apartments and all sorts of things for years now. Routine gives me power. It’s something that I can change, that I can do, that I can accomplish.
And now it’s all fraying away. And I am sick and I am lost, and I don’t know what to do.
Everyone keeps telling me that I need to just worry about enjoying the holidays, and I am going to try. But with this hanging over me? How can I think about anything else?
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