One Amazing Experience: Week 2
Over the last couple of years, as I’ve worked toward figuring out what I enjoy and about what I am passionate, I have learned a great deal – where I like to go, what I like to eat, how I like to be, but I realized there are a couple experiences I have always loved that have lost themselves a bit. Many people do not know I am a painter, and that is because I do not really paint anymore. I also do not read that much anymore. I suppose it is possible to sometimes get lost in discovery a bit, and time is a constant factor, but conscious of this, I know I need to figure out a way to include art and the arts back into my life in a more recognizable way. I really want more peace and mellowness in my life, and the arts is how I’ve found that since I was a little girl.
With that, the amazing experience I am going to share this week is taking time to read on a Saturday night. Reading is a big deal for me right now. I am an English teacher, for crying out loud, and I do not read that much. I used to all the time, but once I got into grad school and started a more active life as an activist, I still read, but literature disappeared. I grabbed my copy of Dracula I picked up while studying this summer and decided to continue on with it. Snuggled up in an armchair, I appreciated the simplicity of what has entertained people throughout history – reading.
I’ve thought of setting a goal of at least a book a month, and Nicole giddily announced when I told her I want to read more, “We can have a literary circle!” (God love her for calling it a literary circle rather than a book club). For now, I am just going to try and read. I am so pumped on it, actually. There is so much I want to devour. And, actually, I likely will take Nicole up the literary circle, or more precisely, as she said, a line, since we are two because she is a wealth of literary knowledge, and I know I will get a lot out of discussing with her. It’s going to be wonderful.
My goal for next week is to do something culturally charged.
I can’t be in your club because my engineering brain does not function the same as yours and the extent of my literary commentary would be “Yes (or no) I did (or did not) like that book” or “That was a good story.” To that end, I did like Dracula and thought that Stoker spun a fine yarn.
Yeah, I really need to finish it! I did finish another book, though, called The Pigman. Of course, it’s short and young adult lit, but the eighth graders were reading it, so I figured I would, too. And yes, I did feel a sense of accomplishment regardless
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