If I am a ‘Guest Author’ then I’m legit?
I have been invited as the guest author on Rita Lee Chapman’s blog. If you were looking to know a little more about me, you may read the interview here;
I’m never quite sure what kind of answer a person wants? What kind of answer do I want to give? And given the interview is over the electronic waves, it can be a little awkward to read too little or too much into the questions.
I always read the ‘blurbs’ about the author on the back covers or fly pages of books. You would think after the many years of reading I would have developed an idea of what kind of biography I would want to give. On the whole I think I’m kind of an ordinary person, married (twice), one child (son-married), retired teacher…yada, yada, yada. Probably the unique feature to my life has been the fact I spent about thirty-three years living overseas on various US military bases teaching the dependent children of the military members living abroad. It has been an interesting life.
Growing up in northern Illinois, I really wanted to go somewhere else and live somewhere else. Don’t get me wrong, Woodstock, Illinois was a great place to grow-up, but I was ready for something more. One of the more disappointing moments in high school (I did not have many of them) was not getting selected to do a student exchange year abroad. I can’t blame them for not selecting me. I had good/great grades and was involved in my school, but…BUT…I had not studied any foreign language, so I agree it would have been kind of dumb to send me to another country.
But I still got that chance as a military spouse and I think I took that chance for everything I could get out of it. I believe what I did there could be applied to living anywhere and that is ‘get out’! Now take that with what inflection you wish, but I mean, get out of the house, your community, your comfort zone. Try something new, different, uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to be overseas.
Example; once when taking painting lessons I was struggling to do what the instructor asked me to do with the paints. I had painted for years at that point, in several media. It wasn’t the language, it was the fact that what I was doing was so new and different from what I had done before that I was frustrated and wanted to cry. It was a moment of realization that I was really learning. If it is easy, if you aren’t grappling with a new idea or concept, are you really getting it? Feeling it viscerally?
So, I guess I’m grappling with this idea currently. I now have a published voice. What will it say about me? I am I ready for what it says about me?
