Overcoming fears is my happy thought

So it’s been like ten years since I’ve let anyone read any fiction I write. Personal essays, yes. Literature analyses, yes. Creative writing stays hidden and password protected on my computer.

This semester, though, I’m taking a writing for young readers class. Workshopping is required, meaning I have to read what I wrote aloud and then call on people so they can critique my work. Ack!

In class today, while we were discussing the Hunger Games, I was sweating. I knew it was coming. Today was my day. And then the first person read their work. And then I read mine.

Can I just note that my hair actually is in braids today?

And people actually liked it! And I felt like it was in a genuine “this is actually kind of intriguing” kind of way, not a “this is cute, you should get a day job” kind of way.

Not that I’m planning on making a living from writing, but hooray for conquering fears!

Because who wouldn’t want two copies of Great Expectations?

Of course I wouldn’t find the lost copy until I’ve already written plenty of notes in the replacement. If I had a Kindle, this wouldn’t be a problem because A) the book would be free, and B) if I lost the book, it would mean I would have lost the Kindle and would have bigger problems on my hands and would forget all about Great Expectations.  Kind of like punching someone in the nose to make them forget they have a splinter in their hand.

I WILL make it through the next two weeks.

I will make it through the next two weeks. I will make it through the next two weeks. I will make it through the next two weeks.

Have you ever had so many things to do that you find yourself saying “I wish there were more hours in the day” except not all funny and like haha we all need more hours but actually serious as in how am I supposed to do everything that I’m supposed to do in the next two weeks I don’t think it’s possible kind of way? And everyone keeps telling me to get help on the things that they aren’t asking me to do. I feel like everyone else is a big strong train that’s already finished their job and I’m just this little blue train in a cardigan and if I don’t do everything on time then all the little boys and girls in the world won’t have food to eat or toys to play with and it will be all my fault.

I WILL make it through the next two weeks.

Being home is my happy thought

After a crazy awful hectic week I finally feel like I have everything sorted. I’m caught up on reading, I spent a considerable chunk of the weekend babysitting my awesome nyc kids (and playing a great g-rated version of 10 fingers. hilarious) and I’ve planned my first program! Yay! Life is calm.

Having an ID card that works is my happy thought

It’s hard to eat on the cheap like I’m trying to when your ID card with your free meal plan on it doesn’t work.

Yum.

Just saying.

Finding a happy thought when it seems like there isn’t going to be one is my happy thought

Today was not exactly happy. I woke up, took a test, finished my last paper for my child lit class, then went to my last Domesticating the Wild in Children’s Literature class ever. So. Sad. I don’t know what I’m going to do next semester without it. I mean, I’m creating an Independent Study with this professor, so I’ll still be working with her, but it was still so sad.

Then I came home and found this on my google reader!

It’s a collaboration of a six-year-old and his father. Lovely. If I had extra money to keep buying prints, it would be the next thing coming in the mail.

 

Also, a resident gave me a tangerine on the elevator. Another happy thought.

Finishing a ten-page devil of a paper is my happy thought

Last fall I took a class on the Qur’an. It was similar in difficulty for me as the class on Plato I finished today, as in, I barely understood a word in class but it ended up being one of the most valuable classes I’ve ever taken. The  difference was I had an entire semester to devote to my Qur’an class, whereas my Plato class lasted only 7 weeks. We wrote only one 10 page paper and weekly one page responses (which were nowhere near enough to prepare me to write 10 pages). I’ve been writing this paper for two weeks now, put about 20 hours or more of effort into it, and I still feel like I submitted a garbled mess. Oh grading gods, be kind to me. It was my first try writing about Plato!

Even though this isn’t exactly my favorite paper I’ve ever written, I’m so completely over the moon that it’s submitted!