I Love My Job

Last night, I got to eat dinner with Laurie Halse Anderson (Who wrote Speak and Wintergirls and Chains.)  (And by the word "with" I mean "in the same room as.") Then, today, I hung out with Patricia MacLachlan (who wrote, among others, the book Sarah Plain and Tall), Kadir Nelson (whose illustrations are unbelievably beautiful), Elizabeth Partridge (YA nonfiction writer extraodinaire), and David Shannon (of No David! fame, among many books). (And by "hung out with" I mean "sat in a room and listened to them talk about their work.")

It was a great 24 hours!

I was able to attend bits and pieces of the BYU Symposium on Books for Young Readers. They let me go just because I work at the library. How cool is that? I'm not sure I like anything much more than listening to creative people talk about their work. What particularly struck me, and continues to linger and to remind me to write it down, is a concept Laurie Halse Anderson spoke about at the dinner last night.

She was talking about teenagers, and really about all of us in general: everyone is bruised. Really, one of the biggest differences between teenagers and adults is that adults are better able to hide our bruises, to pretend like they're not there. I felt two clicks in my soul, two answers fall into place: an utter and unearthly sense of compassion for my teenage self was one of them. I didn't know how to hide my bruises, and my clumsy attempts were illustrated in all that rebellion. The second was a reminder, and it was the second time I have felt this same prompting in the past ten days or so: I have become perhaps too good at the camouflaging. Not that I need to wear my heart on my sleeve or take up the discarded cloak of my goth-girl days, but simply that I need to allow myself to feel more, to work on knocking down my inner walls. I don't know how to do that but it feels intricately and tightly tied to my future, a necessity if I am to accomplish what I want to. Words, somehow—writing—is the key to everything. I just need to figure it out.

Comments

[Britt]

That is super cool. Nicky had one of David Shannon's books. It's his favorite. But then again, why wouldn't it be? That David is such a sweet, little stinker!

[Helena]

That sounds amazingly awesome.

[Becky K]

So glad you had a fun couple of days. I love it when things like that click into place.

Had such a good time with you and Haley yesterday. :)

[Jamie]

I think my sister, the English Teacher, would be incredibly jealous. Sounds like a very enlightening day.

[Apryl]

So jealous you got to hang out with all those cool people! Maybe I can crash the party next year. And your last paragraph made my chest catch a bit too.

[Robin W]

I love nothing better than listening to authors I've read! Speak is a book I recommended to many of my students; they were never disappointed.

[Jillian]

Love the comment about bruising. Maybe that's what makes it so difficult to watch teens attempting to navigate society.

[Wendy]

What a great opportunity. The days keep flying by and soon I will have to seek out a job. I keep going back and forth between librarian (which I know I would love - and especially, if they sent me to something like this) and individual aide at the elementary school (the benefit of that job is that I still get my summers free with the boys and also get to see them during the day at school - if I manage a position in their building, that is).

So glad you have a job you love.