Whether or not anyone besides myself follows this blog is actually irrelevant. It would be cool if they did, don't get me wrong, but for the most part I am using this as a kind of e-journal that other people can read if they want to get a feel of what is going on in my life. I mean, have you ever had someone ask you "How's life going for you?" or from someone you haven't talked to in a few years: "What have you been up to?" Well wouldn't life be a lot easier if they just secretly stalked me and read this blog? Yes. Yes it would. But if they don't then that is cool too.
So, what have I been up to? Well let's see. I think I'll just make me a list and possibly elaborate upon what's been going on.
- My college major is Secondary English Education. That means I want to teach High School English classes.
- I am almost done with student teaching. I have one week left with my 130 juniors.
- I will graduate from college on December 14.
- I applied for an overseas teaching position in Japan. ("You did WHAT?!" Keep reading)
- I am applying for a teaching job locally as well.
- I have written a young adult novel and am working on getting it published.
- I've written a short story too, and might start back on an older one soon.
- I can juggle
- I'm really kind of just kidding about the juggling thing. I can juggle, but that "skill" doesn't warrant being on this list of autobiographical factoids.
- I really don't know what my future holds. But God does, and He seems like He's got His head on straight, so I'll try and do what He wants me to do.
"You wrote a novel?" Yeah, I did. I started writing it in Septemberish of 2010. It was inspired from a monologue piece I wrote for my "Teaching Writing to Adolescents" class I took at Kennesaw State. It turns out that what I wrote was a horrible monologue, but it was a pretty cool piece of narrative. After reading Stephen King's novel, entitled On Writing, I found out that if I could write at least 1,000 words per night then I could easily write a normal length novel in a few months. So, inspired by the first line of that monologue: "My blood is the cure." I started writing. I wrote every night (except when I went backpacking) and 64 days later I had written my first draft topping out at around 94,000 words, or 220 page word document (12 point font 1.5 spaced). I know, I was impressed too. I didn't think I could do it either. And the cool thing is, some people tell me it's kind of good. So I've sent off a query letter to a literary agent to see about representing me in the brutal publishing market. I expect to get rejected, but that is the nature of getting something published. I read somewhere that one in twelve agents will like what you're selling them. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than crestfallen. I'm optimistic, but not to the point where I'm not realistic.
If you think these things are out of the ordinary you are wrong. They aren't. My transient motivation was what was really out of the ordinary. I guarantee you that if you got off Facebook and all the video games you play and stopped watching television that you too could write a novel if you so chose. It is in the choosing that decides the fate of what we do. And if you are suddenly inspired to write, go buy On Writing and read the section entitled "On Writing" (the rest of the book is primarily an autobiographical journey through Stephen Kings life and his affinity for writing, which is interesting, but not as pertinent to writing as the aforementioned section). If you are inspired to teach overseas or to apply for that job you've always wanted, then go do that. You have to stop making excuses. Aspire to be something.
Now off to grade some essays. By the way, it seems like the only time I get things done is when I am procrastinating doing something I want to do less. In this case, I would rather make this first long post than grade those essays. But now that I'm done with this, it's off to that.
If you like what you read and want to follow me than please do, more followers might motivate me to keep up with this ;)
