Thursday, May 21, 2009

No More College

This evening I turned in my last paper. I have no more work to do for college. I will never have homework again. This is a weird feeling. I've been going to school since I was five. That is a long time to get used to something and then have it just drop away. Okay, so I like the idea of no homework ever, but no school is what really feels odd. No classes, no assigned readings, no papers. What am I supposed to do now? I'm supposed to go use my degree for something, but what? I have tried applying to jobs. I've had one interview so far and they went with someone else. I might have another interview in the next few days, but if that falls through, what then? All of my life I have been following these guidelines that have been laid out in front of me. Now there are no guidelines. There are no teachers or professors telling me what I should do next. I have to do it all on my own. Am I ready? Right now I'm not so sure. I just hope it will all work itself out some day down the road--a very short road. I am not going to be someone who lives with her parents for a few years after graduating. I will live there for the summer to build up some money so I can find my own place. Then I am off to wherever I feel like it (if I don't have a job I want by then). The only stress now is finding out what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life. No big deal, right?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Writing Prompt

I had a writing prompt that asked "What is the color of hunger?" And this is my answer:

The color of hunger is pale. The paleness of the starved. The lack of energy. The color it drains from the cheeks of those inflicted by it. Hunger is not white because hunger is impure. It is not red because it does not produce love. It is just pale because of the sorrow you feel for those who suffer. you are not the color of hunger. I am not the color of hunger. They are the color of hunger. But you can help them. I can help, too. All who are not the color of hunger can help those who are. But do we? Or is the color of hunger invisible? We see through the paleness. We see through the pain. It doesn't exist because we're surrounded by everything that is not the color of hunger. We will never be that shade. The shade of hunger.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

What Lasts?

I have often pondered this question. Besides our own memories, what really lasts? Even those fade with time. I like to think that books are the longest lasting form of media. VHS tapes are moot. Soon DVDs will fade into nothingness. CDs are being replaced with iPods while CDs replaced cassette tapes.

Ok, true, books are being replaced with things like the Kindle. Everything is going electronic. But is that all just a phase too? I look at the books I have and I can't imagine anything in place of them. The Kindle or something like it is cold, hard, impersonal. A book you can take with you and smell the pages as you open it. You can write in it, fold over pages noting your favorite passages. Look at the oldest books. They are still in print. They are still out there with more and more copies of them being made. Books have been around for hundreds of years.

But a book can disappear just as easily as the Internet can. Books can be burned (and unfortunately, people do burn them). They can retain water damage. They can be torn apart, be made illegible.

So, what lasts? In my heart, I still want it to be books even though I think they are fading. Maybe that's why I want to be an editor, so I can keep them from disappearing.