Today marks a month since I left the Peace Corps. It’s been a strange, yet fantastic month back. Next week I turn 25. More than ever before, I finally feel like an adult preparing for a whole new phase in my life. Within two months of that time, I will have a full time job (likely within the US government) in a new city. I can’t wait to get started. Until then, I’m just working on making my transition home a healthy one. I decided to wait a month to write my reflections. This weekend I finally sat down and wrote it out. Here it is:
Tag Archives: youth
Haiku #18
Beautiful Women
Faking it for the day’s ads
Misleading our youth
A Strange Day
It has bee a strange day. I slept in later than I normally do–catching up on lost sleep I guess. When I went to my coffee shop to work, everything was off. I ordered the wrong drink. The people next to me talked to loudly. When I finished my Elance work, I didn’t stick around. I got up and left.
Now I’m in Old Town, Fort Collins. I love this place. It may be a further drive, but the coffee shops and atmosphere where are superior. I sat down and wrote a nice personal piece. When I started writing, I meant for it to be the next piece in my 50 Day memory Challenge. It took on an entirely different life of its own. I’ll be uploading it under non-fiction until further notice. I hope you enjoy.
By the way, does anyone know where I can get my hands on some scripts?
Writing Various Ages
As I come close to finishing the second draft of my novel, a certain thought keeps coming to mind: what ages am I capable of writing? I used to believe it was almost impossible to write beyond your age. I now know that not to be true. I am now 23 and the core of my novel center around three characters in their late twenties. Nowadays, my thoughts revolve around the more extreme ages. Throughout the novel, I bring in random characters in their forties and fifties…but I worry that I can’t make them as well rounded as the other characters because I haven’t gone through that part of my life.
Then there is youth. With this novel, I feel like I have done a good job with my youngest character. She is 14. When I think about it, however, I am not sure if I could go much younger. I love reading books with young characters…but I don’t know how to develop such a character. How do you enter the mind of youth? I talked at length with one of my friends about this. She just read “Room.” It’s a book that centers around a five year old. I can’t even imagine. Maybe that’s another boundary of my abilities that I need dismantle through hard work and writing practice.
With Love,
Richard
Richard T. Reilly 