It all started with a question “Why do you want to write memoir?” I did not want to.
When I signed up for a 5-day memoir writing course, I did not expect that anyone would ask me this question or that anyone would ask about my writing experience, but my amazing teacher did. I checked my classmates around the room and was sure that we all would give the same answer. I was so wrong. All my classmates had a pretty good reason to write memoir. My favourite one was someone who was writing memoir after conquering Mount Everest two months ago. Not that I was planning to conquer Everest any time soon, but I almost seriously considered going to Tibet and walking around Mount Kailash with pilgrims in three days. It was supposed to be my journey to enlightenment. The majority of my classmates also had some type of writing experience: academic, political, research, business and blogging. The only answer I could come up with was writing posts on Facebook. I also added that I had been on a Facebook detox for almost three months and not sure when I would get back since I had passed the 21-day point and it became a habit.
At the end of the course I not only learned a lot about memoir as a genre, but also realized that I have been a happy, yet a bit of a “shallow” person over the last three years. I made a mental note to rethink this realization in two weeks.
Here I am again, happy and “shallow”, longing to rediscover myself. I decided that it is time to expect more of myself (expectations to be set) and push myself to the limit (limits to be discovered) and search for my “new” self (“new” to be defined). This will be my project for the next ten months. Each month I will focus on different areas to work on. So far, I know that in August I will learn more about myself and in September - about my friends. Since I am “shallow”, I decided to skip research and start the project right away. If Lois Armstrong said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you will never know”, why would I need clear parameters?
At the end of the course I not only learned a lot about memoir as a genre, but also realized that I have been a happy, yet a bit of a “shallow” person over the last three years. I made a mental note to rethink this realization in two weeks.
Here I am again, happy and “shallow”, longing to rediscover myself. I decided that it is time to expect more of myself (expectations to be set) and push myself to the limit (limits to be discovered) and search for my “new” self (“new” to be defined). This will be my project for the next ten months. Each month I will focus on different areas to work on. So far, I know that in August I will learn more about myself and in September - about my friends. Since I am “shallow”, I decided to skip research and start the project right away. If Lois Armstrong said, “If you have to ask what jazz is, you will never know”, why would I need clear parameters?
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