I love Mumford & Sons.
Embarrassingly enough, they often provoke an emotional response.
I wont go into my why’s of this adoration, but not only do I love Mumford, I happen to love the French language. Here, is beautiful hybrid featuring the wonderful Johnny Flynn.
Once upon a time ago, Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a story using only 6 words.
Of course, the man took up the challenge:
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”
Well damn.
When you’ve got it, you got it.
Of course, this is a story that boils down to literary legend; did Hemingway actually come up with the 6 word story?
It doesn’t really matter, I guess.
The point is, in just a few words, it turns out that it is totally possible to illustrate a small part of ourselves, even poignant and personal moments of triumphs and heart ache.
In 2006, Smith Magazine took the Hemingway challenge to another level. Smith challenged its readers to submit 6 word stories that summarised their entire life.
WOAH.
Awesome idea, Smith Magazine.
After an outpouring of submissions, Smith was able to turn these responses into a series of books called “Six-Word Memoirs”
Anyways!
I think it can be really hard to articulate a memory sometimes. We tend to over-think or make things over complicated. The 6 word story, while challenging, forces us to reflect in a meaningful way and really examine the core of an experience.
It is the sum of a story.
June will be a month of 6 word stories! I will (try) to 6 word story my month!
If you, reader, feel up to the challenge, it would be fun to hear how you do too.
This month I will be Hemingway.
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“What person in their 20’s falls down the stairs?”
Well, the start to my unemployed resolutions is on a temporary hiatus.
Last week, I did what most people tend not to do just by being adults: I fell down a flight of stairs.
I guess bad things don’t come in 3s, it seems they come in 4s!
I have, like many people, stumbled on a step or 2, perhaps skipped a step or slipped a little bit at the edge of a stair only to catch myself on the railing. This, unfortunately, was not a slip like that.
I don’t know what I was doing or how it happened, but I remember being at the top of the stairs and then looking up at them from the bottom.
I hurt my ass.
The pain radiated through my whole body in a way I have never experienced before, and of course I did not keep my cool at all. Instead a howled like a 2 year old.
Naturally, Boy was at work so I distressed called him. My sobs made him think that our cat had died, and when he understood that no, Cat is fine, I fell down and…(incoherent pain sobbing)… Boy thought I had fallen down and landed on the Cat, again, killing him.
Luckily through the tears, what happened was clarified, and Boy came to my rescue.
The results of this awesome moment in my personal history are as followed:
1. An awesome bruise the size of my hand on my thigh that looks like a spiral galaxy.
2. A bruised tail bone.
3. Deeply bruised ego
4. And a new appreciation for the 3 points of contact rule while walking down stairs.
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I’ve heard the saying bad things come in 3s many times over the course of my 20 something years. The thing is, I never really believed it, or perhaps never took notice of 2 minor bad things next to 1 mega bad thing.
But here I am, mid-March and within a span of 2 short weeks I experienced the dreaded 3.
I will spare you the details, but I will say this, my life is about to under go a make over.
The main part of this life make over is that I no longer have a job; certainly a mixed blessing at the moment, but focusing on why this sucks is going to make me feel sad and drag me down, plus what’s done is done and it’s time to move forward!
What I have decided to do is to treat this like a fresh start and an opportunity to focus on improving the over all quality of my life.
Right now it’s kind of hard to see the silver lining, but here are a few way I think would be most useful during this state of starting over:
1. Work out… like it’s your job!
With the wedding this year I get goosebumps, not the good kind, thinking about having 250 pairs of eyes on me for a large portion of one day. My self motivational skills are absolutely abysmal, especially when I am working full time. So yay! silver lining #1: literally being able to work out like it is my job. For the next little while I here by commit to running upwards of 5k 5-6 times/week.
Let’s toss in a few Jillian Michaels videos and some Nike Training Club action and within a month I bet I will start seeing my body making the changes I’d like.
If I can’t do this now I never will.
2. TV is NOT your friend.
What’s worse when feeling like a shit than also becoming a couch potato who relies on TV to get you through the day? Not much.
I refuse to let this make me a total TV zombie.
New rule: TV is not my friend during working day hours. If boyfriend is watching fine, but my butt stays off the couch and on a yoga mat getting some workouts in.
Without a job, it would be really easy to slip into some PJs, grab some extra pillows and enjoy the company of Leslie Knope, or the gang from Community during this enforced sabbatical, but I refuse to submit!
3. Prioritize job searching with purpose.
I have an annoying, insatiable need to feel connected to my job. If I don’t feel connected the job is in jeopardy from the beginning.
While I can’t take too much time to be too particular in this area it is still an amazing opportunity to explore what will make me happy in this new town (aha! silver lining #2!)
This is a great chance to really figure our what I want for myself.
I know I need to dig and dedicate at least an hour each day to scouring the internet for new opportunities.
4. Quality time with Tolstoy
It could be Tolstoy, or Hemingway, or even Kinsella; regardless, me and my paper back amigos are going to spend some quality time together.
Perhaps silver lining #3 is that this could be the happiness project that I have been meaning to explore for what is probably years!
This definitely stings right now, but I hope that with the right mindset I can make this into something that is incredibly positive for this new part of my life.
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I wish when I said “18 months of adventure” that I literally meant that I was packing my bags, leaving it all behind and starting out for a large scale year abroad.
…Sadly, I do not. What I do mean, however, is that the next 18 months of my life will be the most planning and action packed to date!Why you ask?
Well, October 19 2013 I am getting married to the best person on the planet (sorry peeps, I some how snagged the best person! Hooray!) and then in spring of 2014 the boy and I are heading off for a 5 week European adventure.
Now, while all of this is absolutely the most fun ever planning, it is also the most stressful. Here I am in remote, Northern Alberta hoping to plan a wedding 3 provinces over and a honey moon across an ocean.
My insatiable wanderlust has me craving exploration and culture, while my sensible side is struggling to keep me grounded and focus on the task at hand: the wedding.
Luckily for me, rather than earning the title “Bridezilla”, what I do has been coined “Planzilla”
A Planzilla is a loving term for someone, like myself, who is a planner at heart.
If you are indeed a Planzilla, you may find yourself with a strange obsession with all things Moleskine; You probably have the planner and a wide collection of notebooks. Perhaps you become slightly weird and possessive over your oh so fancy Sharpie pens and LOVE highlighters and post its… you have strong planzilla possibilities.
Here, dear reader, I will document the process of all the plans that encompass this new stage of my life
Between busting my ass to get in shape, burying myself in Lonely Planet books and planning our big day, I will document the good, the bad and the ugly of the process.
Let’s raise a tea to the next 18 months! Cheers
xo
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A Collection of Nothing & Everything 