Interesting Writing Assignment

Dear Shell,

My good friend Ceri gave me a few writing assignments to add to my ever-growing list. I ended up choosing one of them for my next assignment, although it did end up being over two pages long, probably because I babbled on with some philosophical nonsense at the beginning. But hey, that's my prerogative as a writer!

Assignment #4: Write Two Pages about How The Choices You Have Made Changed The Path of Your Life.

Every time we make a choice, it changes the path of our lives. Some decisions are minor enough that it barely puts a curve in our life path. The path we choose and the path we could have chosen run side-by-side, occasionally crossing again at a time where another minor choice needs to be made. Again, the choice we make still keeps us heading in the same direction as the alternate path.

Then there are the choices that, when we make our decision the paths veer away from each other, going in vastly different directions, leading to a completely different life than the other path would have led to. Which path we follow depends on that critical moment, when you are standing there at the fork in the road looking at the decisions before you, and then choose the path that you hope is correct.

Some people only see one critical fork in the road on their life path, or they may never have those critical moments in life. They have nice smooth paths, never a curve or a rock to slow their journey.

The rocks are those things that happen that you can’t control, that happen without you choosing for it to happen. Some people trip on the rocks and fall and cannot seem to get themselves back up. Others come to the fork in the road and stand there, unable to choose a path out of fear that they will choose the wrong path.

I’ve tripped over several rocks on my life path. Many times I wanted to just sit there, nursing the hurts that the fall caused, not wanting to look past that rock to what was beyond. Somehow, I always got back up and moved forward. Sometimes I had a helping hand life me up, brush off the dirt, and face me forward again. Sometimes I struggled to my feet alone, not because no one was there, but because I had to do it alone to get past that rock.

I’ve had several critical forks in my life path so far, and I’m only 32. Decisions that have drastically changed what my life could have been, and some that were big changes but not quite as drastic of a change.

One of what I would consider to be a very critical fork in the road that I stood at for a few moments in time was at the age of 17, my senior year of high school. I had the chance to join the Military. I took the tests they wanted me to take and scored very high on them. Then the recruiter mentioned sending me into the Nuclear field of study. The thought of being around something that could potentially kill thousands of people from one little mistake, combined with the fact that I could hardly walk 10 steps without hurting myself, bumping into something or dropping something, made me turn away from that path to head down the one I hoped would be less dangerous.

Where would I be now, if I had chosen the other route, if I had joined the military? Would I still be a proud member, serving my country? Would I have gone to war several times already? Would I be back in Michigan, living near my hometown? Would I be rich, still working in the Nuclear field?

Would I have met my husband, the man that I plan to share the rest of my life with? He is former military, but from the Army branch whereas I was looking at the Navy. He might not have been on that other path. Or...we may still have met but under different circumstances.

You may never know what that other critical path would have led you to, even though you may sit and wonder about it, questioning yourself if you made the right decision. But once you turn away and head down another way, that alternate path is gone. You may have another opportunity someday to head in that direction again, but everything in-between cannot be changed, that option is gone. The path we choose is the path we must live by. You cannot go back and erase the steps you’ve already made to choose another path.

A more recent critical fork in my life path happened a little over a year ago. Through much careful consideration and discussions with my husband, I took the fork in the road that meant quitting my job and finishing my college degree.

Where as that path taken me so far? Well so far, I have graduated college with a bachelor’s in Management. I am still unemployed; our country is in a recession and Michigan is coming close to a 10% unemployment rate. I may not be able to find a good job for awhile. But there are positives on this path besides finishing my degree. I have finally started writing again, working on a book that I hope is good enough to get published. My health has improved greatly, my breathing is still not 100% and might never be again, but it’s not as hard to breathe anymore.

If I had stayed on the other path, continuing to work where I was? Well…who knows what would be going on now. That path is gone, in the past.

Time to keep looking forward. Time to see where this path leads me.

Shell

Busy lately

Dear Shell,

Sorry I haven't written in the past few days. Between fall cleaning (same as spring cleaning, but done in the fall.. the deep down, crawling in the corners, standing on counters to reach the ceiling, etc type cleaning), working on my book, and a stupid migraine, I haven't had time to write a letter.

It's weird, the migraine I had a couple days ago. It hit in the late morning/early afternoon. Normally I wake up with them if I'm going to have one. But I laid down around 7pm until 8pm in our dark bedroom, to see if I could get any relief from it.

Then I talked to mom the next day and... she had a migraine, at the same time. And she laid down at about 7pm until 8pm to try to get relief from it...

Talk about weird! and this isn't the first time it's happened either. I'd say at least 3-4 times in the past 6 months, Mom and I have had migraines on the exact same days. It's not like we saw each other that day or the day before each time and had the same triggers hit us. It could be weather related I suppose, we live only about 15 minutes apart so we'd be experiencing the same weather conditions daily. But there has to be something in common that's triggering migraines in both of us the same days.

Could be stress, God knows there's plenty of stress in the family right now.

Grandma started Chemo, the type where they inject it into your blood. I guess they had some trouble with her veins rolling so they couldn't get the needle in. She may or may not go for another treatment tomorrow, Mom said they were looking at doing a port to make it easier, but I'm not sure if they decided yet or not. Mom said that Grandma wasn't feeling too well this week, I think the Chemo is already making her sick. At least this time, she's seeing a doctor every week, so she hopefully wont get as sick from the Chemo this time around. Before she was on the pill form of it I think, and got very sick from it. That's when she ended up in the hospital.

Well I need to go work on my book, plus I need some lunch. And, I need to do another writing assignment soon. So I better get busy!

Thanks,
Shell

Difficult Assignment

Dear Shell,

My husband J helped pick out this assignment. I have a list of 28 possible topics (which has since grown to 37) and I asked him to pick a number between 1 and 28. He chose number 16, then asked "did I win something?" hehe

Number 16 ended up being one of the assignments from the article, but this one has a little twist to it to make it interesting. Every sentence can only be three words long. Not two, not five, only three words per sentence. Lets see how I do with that. (it's not all necessarily in chronological order, some of it would make no sense at all if i put it where it 'should' be in the list, since I'm limited to such short sentences).

Assignment #3 - Write 2 pages about any 10 years of your life: I chose Age 22 to 32

Laughed a lot. Cried a lot. I made mistakes. I repeated mistakes. I made friends. Lost some friends. Occasionally got drunk. Normally designated driver. Danced on bars. Fell in love. Got heart broken.

Went to parties. Tried being wild. I wasn't wild. I learned drums. Wasn't too bad. Met someone new. Heart broken again. I left him. Learned from mistakes.

Cousin Jason died. Injuries from fire. Memories still hurt. He was twelve.

Worked afternoon shift. Transferred to midnights. Started college classes. Went part time. Found someone else. Moved in together. He got mean. Feared for life. got myself out.

Bought new house. Tried online dating. Met new people. Met future husband. Had first date. Lasted six hours. Dated three years. Finally got married. Travel every year.

Transferred new department. Transferred to days. Had health problems. Health got worse. Transferred midnights again. Quit my job. College full time. Classes got canceled. College part time. Celebrated third anniversary. Went on vacation.

I finished college. Graduated highest honors. Can't find job. Economy in recession. Presidential election soon. Obama versus McCain. Don't like McCain. Unsure about Obama. Gas prices high. Oil prices high. Grocery prices high.

Great-grandma died. 98 years old. Was old age. Had six sisters. One still alive. Rest died old.

Grandma has cancer. Tumor around kidney. Got real sick. Was in hospital. Back home now. Chemo every week. third generation cancer. Family high risk. Scared for mom.

Have new ideas. Writing a book. Actually writing two. May write more.
**********

This assignment was difficult. It did end up being barely 2 pages handwritten (double spaced..haha). I know more happened in the last 10 years, but some of it I don't remember. Some of it, there was just no way to fit it into only three words and have it somewhat make sense. Some other parts, i can make it fit into three words per sentence, but the emotion is missing. It feels kind of clinical in a way, "don't express emotions, just give it to them straight". It really made me think though, what I have accomplished in the past 10 years, what have I learned, what can I change now, what can I do differently?

Shell

Shopping

Dear Shell,

More and more I'm realizing, I really hate shopping. Clothes shopping is the worst but grocery shopping is starting to climb up the list rather rapidly. Prices have gone up, doubled coupons are a thing of the past, and product sizes have gone down.

One grocery shopping trip worth of food usually lasts roughly 2 weeks. So I go grocery shopping twice a month, picking up the staples (pasta, sauce, rice, cheese, meats...etc). then usually once a week I go to the corner store and pick up milk and bread, since we go through those fairly regularly. I usually get our ground hamburger/sirloin from the corner store as well, the quality of the meat is worth the 10 cents more a pound over Wal-Mart's price (when I cook the Wal-Mart meat and have to drain over 1 cup of grease out of a 1 lb package of hamburger at a 90/10 mix...but with the corner store I don't have to drain ANY grease...the quality is much better at the corner store).

The past three years, I've had our monthly grocery budget set at $250 a month, and for the two of us this was plenty. but in the past six months, I'm seeing our grocery bills climb, and climb, and climb. This month alone... $195 two weeks ago, $169 today. And that's WITH coupons. I saved over $40 with coupons this month. So for September, we've already hit $364 just counting the two grocery trips. And we're buying the same damn things we always buy, but it doesn't seem to last as long as it used to (and this is even with me cutting down how much I cook for dinner, watching portions, etc).

We're cutting down on our miscellaneous/fun spending, to help funnel some of that budgeted money toward groceries, so we haven't had a huge impact overall on a monthly basis.

I need to finish my book, get it published, have it hit best seller lists... and get rich! yeah, that's it! :)

Shell

Another Assignment

Dear Shell,

Writing Assignment #2 - write two "pages" on where you would fly if you could.

When I first saw this assignment in the article that Mom gave me, I thought to myself, "well you can fly just about anywhere nowadays, just get tickets and go on an airplane." But then I thought further about it. Where would I fly, if i could FLY! Like Superman, or like a bird. High in the sky, above the trees, above the clouds, above the world.

There are times I wish I could fly. I'm sure everyone has those days occasionally. When everything just feels like it is weighing down so heavy on your shoulders that you walk around stooped over, your eyes dimmed, a non-smile on your face. I say a non-smile, because not smiling doesn't necessarily mean you're automatically frowning. You could be just ... not smiling.

It's the days like that, that I wish I could fly. I would fly above the pain, above the stress, fly above the dark cloud that was weighing me down. I would fly up and up, until I reached the beautiful cottony clouds in a light blue sky. I would curl up on one of those soft clouds and let the rest of the stress drain away, imagining it falling back to the earth like huge drops of rain. I would stay on my own personal cloud until the pain and stress finished falling away, then I would slowly float back to Earth, relaxed and free enough to battle the daily grind of life again until the day came, that I needed to just fly away for a little while again.

There are other times I wish I could fly as well. Happy, carefree days. The days that I have a permanent smile on my face, a bounce in my step, a ready laugh. Those are the days I like to spin around in pure happiness, then if I could, I would fly straight up in the air and come spiraling back down to land gently on my feet. The sky is a brilliant blue, with light wisps of pure white scattered about. The air is crisp and clean. Flying around feels so free, so happy.

There are places in the world I could fly to, I would love to visit Ireland again. Someday I'd like to see Texas, Montana, maybe even California (if it doesn't fall into the ocean... ). But overall, just the sheer joy of being able to visit the clouds and lay on their soft cottony surface, to spin around happily in the sky, that would be enough.

That is where I would fly, if I could fly.

Shell

Quick Update

Dear Shell,

I had planned on doing another writing assignment today. But then I got started working on my book, and here it is several hours later, and I'm still going strong on it. It's amazing what can happen when you find the way around the big brick writers block/wall... at 4am in the morning, and finally realize how you want a particular story to go.

The book I'm working on, most likely wont be a very long book. And I might gear it more toward the teenage crowd when I get ready to send it off. Of course I need to finish it first!

So with that said, I better get back to writing. I may be back later tonight to add to this or to write another letter.

Take care!
Shell

Personal Writing Assignment

Dear Shell,

A couple months ago, my mom gave me an article from a magazine. This article was about writing, and had several writing assignments in it. Most of it is 'write 2 pages on ________' and will have a specific thing you need to write about. Such as write two pages in which something is too small, or write two pages about a jinx. It's more to get you to think and to just write, than to write a story for each. Even random ramblings are acceptable as long as it pertains to the subject. I've come up with a few of my own assignments but will also work on ones from the article as well.

In a blog, you can't really define where one page starts and another ends, since it's one long post until you end it and start a new post. But you can do two long paragraphs, or use a symbol to designate where one 'page' ends and another starts.

Assignment #1: Write two "pages" about nature.

I've always loved nature, the trees, the animals. The peace and quiet you find only when you're deep within the woods. You can't hear vehicles or people shouting, you don't smell fumes from the factories. All around you is the bright, vibrant colors of the season. In the spring, the leaves on the trees are a greenish-yellow color. Flowers are starting to open and face the sun with their colorful faces. In the woods you might find little purple violets covering the ground, smiling up at you in joy. The petals are a dark royal purple while the center is a bright yellow. No human has planted them, they were placed there by Mother Nature's own hands.

You may also find a wild flower that stand a couple feet tall on a long narrow stalk. The flower itself appears to be a large white flower from a distance, but when you come closer, you see that it is actually tons, maybe hundreds of very tiny white flowers clustered together. It is commonly known as Queen Anne's Lace, but is also known as a wild carrot.

In the summertime, the leaves on the trees appear to be a deeper green, filtering the sunlight so that only the rare sunbeam makes it through, like a spotlight onto the mossy ground. Under the canopy of leaves, the air is cooler, somewhat moist even. The scent of damp earth mixes with the fragrance of the flowers and trees.

With the fall, many more colors enter the portrait of nature. In enters the rusty brown, the burnt orange, the russet red. The leaves on the trees lose their brilliant green as they accept the change that comes every year. The trees explode with color. You'll see a tree with bright yellow leaves next to a tree with leaves so brightly red. If you catch the woods at the right time during the fall, it appears the whole forest is on fire with a riot of colors.

Wintertime could look bleak, if you look only at the trees missing their canopy of leaves. Stark, bare limbs stretched out. But winter brings it's own beauty to the woods. The snow is a pristine white, undamaged by the touch of humans. Ice glistens on the limbs of the trees, sparkling like diamonds in the air. The air is cold and crisp.

As a child, I loved to roam the woods around our house and the neighboring homes, during any of the seasons. I had several places where I would go to, to just sit and listen to nature, to enjoy the colors, sounds and smells of the beautiful portrait that Mother Nature painted that day. Some days that place might be up in a tree, watching the animals scurry beneath my hiding place, as they hunt for food. Other days that place could be a small clearing in the center of the woods, where the ground is soft and mossy, and I could lay on my back and stare up, looking at the trees, the sky. Watching the birds fly between the branches of the trees, or even higher up in the sky. Or, I could lay on my stomach and watch the smallest creatures as they moved among the rocks and moss. I could create a world for them in my mind, deciding where they are heading, what they are thinking or doing at that moment.

Regardless of where I will go in life, where I will end up, I will always hold dear to me, my love of nature. Mother Nature is a true artist who does not get the credit she deserves, for this masterpiece she creates every day of our lives.


Shell

Introductory Letter

Dear Shell,

I just turned 32 about a week ago. I don't know why so many women dread hitting their 30's. It's a great age for women. We're no longer teenagers, we're no longer struggling through our 20's trying to figure out just who we are. We're in our 30's. We're mature, we're adults, and we have it good. Women in their 30's receive more respect in the working world than they do in their 20's.

Of course, there's also the fact that my husband J won't let me 'stay forever 29'. If I even try to say I'm 29, he's quick to tell what my real age is, and tells me to embrace my age. I could be mad at him for telling the world my real age, but why? He wants me to feel secure and comfortable with myself. He's proud of me.

I look back at what I accomplished in my teens. I babysat, I worked 2 jobs while in my senior year of high school, and I know I did things I should have gotten in trouble for... if i had been caught (sorry mom!). I made friends that today, I don't remember their names or why they were considered friends in the first place.

My early- to mid-20's: those were rough years. I'll probably write letters at a later date explaining things more, but we'll leave it now as they were really rough years.

Then came the end of age 25. A couple months before I turned 26, when I was trying my hardest to be 'wild' but still couldn't quite break completely through that responsible shell that wrapped around me, I met J. It wasn't love at first sight, but we really hit it off right from the first date.

Three years later, we married. We had a very nice, private ceremony with around 20 of our closest friends and family. I still receive compliments today from those who celebrated that special day with us.

We just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary a few months ago. Yes, we've had a few rough times. Who hasn't? But we communicate and work things out. After all...who else would put up with us!

Since hitting my 30's, after many years of hard work and dedication, I have graduated from college with my Bachelors in Business Management. (one month before my 32nd birthday to be exact).

Well looking at the clock, it is after 4am and J is due to wake up for work in less than 2 hours. I should try to get some sleep, as I have work to do tomorrow as well. I need to re-write chapter 2 in my novel (I didn't care for how it was flowing), and try to get another couple chapters written. Plus research... that's the worst part about writing, the research. Wish me luck in getting the novel finished and published!

Talk to you soon,
Shell