I Wish I Could

We had a power outage here this morning, right when I was in the first few sentences of writing up this blog post and, not knowing how long it would be before it came back on, I figured it would be a good idea to fly through a shower before all the heat went out of the little hot water in the tank. Once that was over I had all kinds of errands to run and then came right back to dive into a bunch of necessary life stuff, but I wasn’t really stressed about not getting a post up, it’s only a blog right? Besides, I’m supposed to be posting ‘a picture of something you wish you could forget’ but I just remembered I have more school work to do.

School.

So this week is the first of my new class, American Literature from 1865 to Present Day, and compared to the last class, Lit through 1865, I already feel a little calmer. Rather than 300 pages a week of reading we have 30. Manageable and reasonable for adults returning to school who have more priorities than just reading. But the paper due this week is another story.

I have to write a narrative essay on something I’ve experienced that was completely American. Now I know what most of you are probably saying ‘that’s a no brainer for you Jenn, just pull up something you’ve already written, tweak it and use that’ and I’d agree with you. But I already asked and I’m not allowed to use something I’ve already published.

Oh no, that’s not good.

Considering I’ve been writing this blog now for three and a half years I’ve shared almost every experience that would make for a really good narrative essay. So I’ve been sitting here instead, wracking my brain, trying to figure out what to use as a topic.

I really wanted to use my post on 9/11 as I felt it could epitomize the narrative style, as well as comprised of all the elements we’re supposed to include, and nothing could be more American of an experience. But being brutally rebuffed on that, I literally went blank.

Instead of freaking out, even though I have plans all weekend and will find it difficult to find time to write it other than today, I started reading back through the last three weeks of this posting challenge. I figured maybe I briefly mentioned something I could use. But nothing is ringing as a good topic that could hold up for three succinct pages.

Stupid academia! If it wasn’t for the fear of plagiarism I bet I could use my formerly written piece. Sigh.

Once I got finished rehashing the past month, I turned to reading everyone’s intro posting in class thinking that maybe someone mentioned something about themselves that would resonate with me and spark a memory where I’d yell ‘YES!’ and start furiously typing out my three page, double spaced masterpiece.

But I got nada.

I turned on the television for background noise and the super campy “Adventures in Babysitting” was on. As if I could change the channel! Of course that started me thinking back on being a teenager and doing stupid teenager things. I mean, I never climbed out onto the side of a skyscraper in Chicago or anything but maybe there was something there to use.

But the movie’s been over for a couple hours now and still, zilch is coming to mind.

I texted Matt to ask him what I’ve done. He basically wrote back the text equivalent of a shrug.

That pretty much brings you current in my day.

Chirp…chirp…chirp…

Maybe I’ll write about baseball. Don’t they call it the All American game? If only I could remember my first trip to Fenway and caught a foul ball while sitting next to Pesky’s Pole or something. Now that would make for a great essay.

Think writer’s license to, let’s just call it, embellish, applies to school work?

Wait...what was my post supposed to be about today?  Huh, guess I "forgot".

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