…It’s only life after all. 

Yesterday was the last day of the writing challenge and I’m not sure how many words I compiled over the last two weeks or how many poems I feel are ready to meet the world, but I do know I’ve spent a considerable amount of time working on writing, contemplating life and writing as a craft, and ultimately, reminiscing about my past. 

By the way, today’s featured image is the one I was remembering a few days ago when I was writing about my adolescence. The date on the back says June 1991. That’s 31 years ago for those of you at home, keeping score. Funny how I believed it would be quite hard to find, buried someplace in a box in this ginormous house, but it wasn’t. It was actually in a box I recognized immediately when I saw it in a spare bedroom which I used to use as my office. 

Many of my things are still in that room. It was sort of my little sanctuary when we first moved into this house. It had my bedroom furniture with my bed and dressers full of pictures, files, and notebooks. The art on the wall is mine and the pictures and trinkets on the dressers are mine too. It was the first room I assimilated. 

Just recently I moved a lot of that stuff, including my desk, bookshelf, and all my creative writing things to the room directly above the master bedroom. There’s a private staircase that leads up to the “library” and a small room off that, like an indoor balcony, that overlooks a room we call the “solarium.”  My new reading/writing space is that balcony room. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty swank. 

Where was I? Oh, the picture. 

That’s me in 1991 and when I wrote about it from memory I actually got a lot of the details correct. The outfit, the curly hair, the phone cradled to my ear with its cord draped across me. I did get some of the details wrong though. The couch I got all wrong and I thought there was a barrette in my hair but it’s actually a scrunchie. Man, those landline days! 

Anyway, so I wrote for a few days about a few different times in my childhood and I think I’m over it. I sometimes like to recall a memory from a distant past, but it never lasts long. I’m more about the future. I like to think about tomorrow, plan for the future, and have goals. It’s way more satisfying to me to think about the days ahead than the days past. Thinking about the past never gets you anywhere new. You know what I mean? 

That’s probably why I’m so over this writing challenge already. I think I’ve learned a few things, and have been mildly successful, but it’s not something I want to continue to think about. 

What have I learned? 

I’ve learned that I can still do something I put my mind to, even if I bent the rules a little in the process. I learned that bending is actually OK, and so is changing your mind. I learned that I really do enjoy my morning routine and that exercise is just as important to me as writing. I have abstained from being on the treadmill and watching shows for the past two weeks and I can say that I don’t think it has made my life any better. I also learned that I can still write poems when I really want to. Not saying any of the new ones I wrote these past two weeks are good, but they exist. 

What else? I found a good balance on most days and was able to get more done I think because I did prioritize writing and revising. That’s part of the reason I’m finishing this challenge wrap up post today instead of yesterday which was the actual last day of the challenge. I finally got motivated to start my garden and there was a ton of prep work that needed to be done. 

After that I was just busy with other things all day and then when the afternoon rolled around, I wanted to spend some time with Jim. I wrote a little but sort of let it go. And that was OK. 

Today is going to be a hot one, and I’ve got a full morning planned, so I wanted to finish this up early. And so I have. 

Challenge complete.
Peace and Love,
~Miss SugarCookie