Teenage Daydream

I went for a long walk last night, hours after the sun had set. I put on some headphones, selected a playlist I'd made over a year ago and put one foot in front of the other. I walked past a high school and saw some boys hanging out on a picnic table, listening to music of their own. Out of the blue I was overwhelmed with a memory from my own time in high school. It was a night that felt quite similar, the air was cold, the sky open. I was walking alone. I had gone to see the school play. I can't even tell you which one it was. It's funny the kinds of things our brains hold onto and the kinds of things it lets go. The memory that hit me so hard, so fast, was one in which I ran into the boy I had an epic crush on at a time when I was least expecting to. I came around a corner and there he was, right after I'd been thinking about him. It felt like magic, like it was meant to. We talked. And like always, he left me wanting for more than our few words. I went home, wrote about it in my journal, and fell asleep dreaming of him.

For the rest of my walk it was hard to escape my teenage self. Further along I could hear laughter over the sounds of my music and I looked to see where it was coming from and saw a bunch of kids out in the front yard of a house, running around and goofing off. It made me smile and drew me to other memories and other emotions.

I've been thinking a lot about books, about why I'm drawn to the kinds of books I'm drawn to, why I read (and write) so much YA. I recently read Jojo Moyes new book One Plus One (which sadly for you, doesn't come out until July) and while it didn't affect me in the same way as Me Before You) it was still emotionally resonant even though I have very little in common, at least on the surface) with any of the characters. I'm currently reading a MG (Middle Grade) novel (which is a genre I read maybe 1-3 books a year). This book is hitting a very different emotional nerve that links back to a much earlier part of my childhood than I usually think about.

The truth is, I like all kinds of books about all kinds of different things. But the books that pull me in again and again and again are the ones with compelling characters who have interesting stories to tell.

I tried writing several other novels, writing pages, a few chapters. I even finished one manuscript. But it wasn't until I started writing about high school that I started to truly feel like I had something I wanted to say, something that I needed to say. I still feel that way.

I read two books in the last week in exchange for sleeping.

The Best of Friends

I had a wonderful time last night. A high school friend is getting married this afternoon (along with the sister of another high school friend) and that has brought a great many people to town. Last night, we all went out for dinner at a lovely restaurant with delicious food and refreshing cocktails. We sat on the patio for hours talking and laughing. We remembered old crushes (and poor boyfriend decisions). We talked about siblings and parents, children and marriage.

Sometimes I am amazed at how easy it is for us to pick up right where we left off. Some of these people I see often. Some I see once a year for maybe a couple of hours. But the conversations are always easy. It's been 18 years since we graduated and we still have so much to talk about.

Last night there was some reflection on that, about the people we were and the people we are and why we all still get along. Someone said that even back in high school we all had a pretty good sense of who we were and we were all very comfortable being ourselves. I very much think that's true. I know that personally, the core of me hasn't really changed that much. I'm still very much the same person I always was. There are definitely aspects to my personality that have grown and developed and I'm much more comfortable saying what I mean to say and being open...though I still won't always volunteer information unless asked. I still work better in smaller groups than larger ones.

My WIP (work-in-progress) is about (in part) that transition between high school and college and how that major transition affects these characters. I remember, from my own experience, sitting outside Coffee People on NW 23rd with two boys. One I knew well, and one I knew not quite so well. I remember it was near the end of the summer and I was beginning to wonder if this was it, if this was the end of these friendships. I wondered if time and distance would close the book on these relationships. And it made me sad even though I knew I was going off to college where more friends were sure to be made.

All these years later, I'm still in touch with both these boys. One, because we have always been friends, and one because of the wonders of Facebook.