The last time I "failed" at write31days, I did not write
again for six whole months! I will not let this happen again. I figure if I can
write 10 times a month that is better than nothing, so I will keep writing and
hopefully even keep blogging. So here I am jumping back in with Day 9.
Yesterday, I had a flashback to junior high. Okay, maybe not junior high, more like Junior Speech class. In my continuing education effort, I had a group presentation. Ya know where you actually have to be up in front of a classroom and talking and sounding intelligent. Public speaking is NOT my gift. I am 1000% positive that God has not called me to public speaking (I will take this moment to say that I am not saying this will never change, but for now in this season of my life, in the living out of my personality, there is no room for public speaking).
Anyway, back to my flashback predicament. I woke up that morning
with some crazy dreams in my mind, ya know the ones where you have experienced
the day's events over and over and they DO NOT go according to plan. Like
when you dream that a piano has suddenly appeared in the classroom and is
blocking your view from the fellow students. Or the secret service show up and
pull out the ONE person you can count on to help with the interaction time. It
was crazy
So I wake up and my stomach is in knots and part two of my
flashback is settling my stomach with cinnamon toast because it's the only
thing I can get down and I wasn't even sure that was going to be enough.
Seriously, the nerves I had were causing a little bit of dry heaves as I was
getting ready.
To top it off I was having a bad hair day and it was raining. Like
I said, JUNIOR HIGH all over again!
It is so frustrating to me that even though I am almost old, and I
have some life experience under my belt, that getting up in front of a
classroom and attempting to speak about a topic or a poet or a literary critic
(Matthew Arnold if you must know) still terrifies me.
Also, little tidbit about Arnold. He has some good quotes... Like this one that makes me think maybe I should pursue writing poetry instead of prose and essays.
In a way, it does remind me that I don't have it all together
(don't worry, that really wasn't something I thought to begin with). And it
reminds me that God gives us things to stretch us and grow us, and make us
depend on Him and His strength.
Also, the presentation went by without a hitch. I don’t know what
kind of grade we got and there was no raving that it was the best one, but we
got it done and nobody choked or completely lost their place. It is a good
reminder to me that I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to present like
someone else. And I don’t have to love it. I just have to be willing and do my
best.
Join me as I remember what it means to be a writer again. Writing for 31 days in an attempt to find where nature and art collide in the work of writing. Click the graphic to find all my #write31days posts.