Tip of the Day: Forget about New Year's Resolutions this year. I'm going to choose one word for the year. I haven't quite decided what it is yet, but I'm mulling it over.
It's time for Author2Author: The Teen Years, when we mine our memories for what it was really like to be a teenager and how that impacts our writing. This week, we're talking about what you (and your friends) in your teen past thought you'd be like in the future--meaning now, the present. (Did that make sense? I feel like I should be inventing time travel appropriate verb tenses.)
It's good for me to remember that when I was 15, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up and that was OK. I didn't lose sleep over it, you know? My friends and I figured we'd probably live in Manhattan and see a lot of live music. We expected to be at Madison Square Garden when the Rangers finally won the Stanley Cup again. Those were great goals.
What I really, really secretly dreamed of was writing for the best show on television: Days of Our Lives. I was willing to make the sacrifice of leaving my friends and moving to California for this.
I actually didn't move to California, as life got complicated with college and true love and the compromises both required. Also, I was not at Madison Square Garden when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup. But teenage dreams don't need to compromise, baby.
The last thing my friends and I expected was that I would have kids. I had two younger brothers and two younger stepsisters, so I was always babysitting while my friends were off doing (what I imagined were) exciting things. The only positive in this was that I honed my craft reading this masterpiece over and over again:
I don't want to spoil the ending for you. It has a great twist.
Friends were so much more important than career goals, weren't they? How about you? What did you and your friends envision doing together as legal adults?
-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages
I just wanted to have my own apartment without a lawn or a car or a mortgage to worry about.
ReplyDeleteI made it quite a few years before marrying someone who wanted to live in the suburbs--but the deal was, he has to deal with the lawn and the car!
Jenn H.
That Grover book is classic.
ReplyDeleteI am still good friends with at least half a dozen of my HS friends. It is more important than the fact that in my sr yearbook I said I wanted to live by myself in a Boston apt. :)
Kate,
ReplyDeleteI think we must have been separated at birth! When I was a teen, I dreamed of writing for a soap opera too. (I'm a Y&R fan, though.) And I ADORE The Monster at the End of This Book. Hands down: Best. Book. Ever.
When I was 16, I also wanted to marry this cute guy named Jim and was best friends with a girl named Jane. Hmmm...Jim is sitting in my kitchen, reading the newspaper as I type this and Jane is still one of my best friends.
Ha--I loved Days of our Lives as a teen. Who knows maybe that dream could still come true!
ReplyDeleteHa! I realized I wasn't going to make it as a soap opera writer about the same time I realized all the characters' problems would go away if they moved to a different town.
ReplyDeleteCar, that's adorable that you married your high school dream date!
I applied for an All My Children internship-- I was close! :)
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