My Week: Friends, Star Trek, and Drawing

I know, I know. My blog's been quiet this week. In my defense, I've kept fairly busy. With what, you may or may not be wondering? Much of the usual, such as CLEP studying, writing, and reading. But I had some fun new experiences this week as well!

Wednesday night I spent at my dear friends' the Durlings house. +Susannah and I enjoyed a delicious meal with her family and took a long walk in the rain before spending the evening watching the season finale of Supernatural. Thursday we rose not so bright and early for another walk and food (am I sensing a pattern here?) before heading to Dyno-rock Indoor Climbing Gym for our first adventure in rock climbing! We had a great time - Susannah was a natural and scaled several walls in no time. Between having shoes that were too tight and not being as strong and tough as she is, I didn't do as well, but I still had a great time. Definitely an experience we're repeating!

Yesterday I saw Star Trek Into Darkness with my dad and older brother Andrew. It was a great flick with superb acting; one I definitely recommend if you like a good sci-fi, whether or not you're a Trekkie - though I would suggest watching the 2009 movie first.


Today I've spent the majority of my day with my sketchpad on my lap and my pencils in my hand. Thursday evening Susannah drew some lovely fan art for me which I shall cherish forever - and which has inspired me to practice my drawing skills even more. I practiced an assortment of noses and eyes today, among other things. Shading is my weakness, as evident by those eyes, but I'll conquer it yet! Even though I have a long ways to go before I can consider myself a semi-decent artist, I do enjoy drawing.

So that's a brief assessment of my week. And tomorrow starts a brand new one!

This Season of Summer

As the last day of classes has passed and finals have ended, I'm now free to enjoy summer! Historically I'm not a fan of this season of the year, partially because I detest warm weather, but for once I have been eagerly anticipating this. I'm enjoying the chance to break free of the tedious routine of each semester and move through each day freely. I have set several goals and intend to stay busy throughout these summer months.

The month of June should keep me particularly occupied. I'll be working on the UTA campus for two weeks at the beginning of June, followed immediately by being involved in my brother's wedding. Then it will be packing and heading out to Britain for 11 days with my older siblings. And once I get back, I'll be industriously scrapbooking and blogging about the trip.

Throughout May and July I intend to complete several goals. These include scholastic - passing two U.S History CLEPs - and fitness objectives. I have also committed to writing my first complete novel - approximately 100,000 words - throughout these months. I've worked on my novel in bits and pieces for ages, but I finally determined to sit down and write out a complete first draft. I'm extremely excited about this, and to be honest, quite interested to see how this first draft turns out.

Plus I'll stay busy with the norm - spending time with dear friends, learning new piano pieces, reading books (hoping to make it through at least a dozen this summer). And I'm going to step outside my comfort zone and try new things, such as going rock-wall climbing with my darling friend +Susannah in just a few weeks!

Why am I sharing this, you may ask? It seems to me that when I express my goals to others, they move beyond the nebulous stage of "I want" and into the firmer reality of "how can I?" There's a sense of accountability, perhaps responsibility that comes when other people know what you expect of yourself. So here I am, laying out my goals to further inspire myself to accomplish all my plans for the summer. And what a wonderful summer it's shaping up to be!

What about you? What are your goals for this summer? Maybe you'll be following the normal routine of work or school - and there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe, just maybe, you'll push yourself to try something new, to go on an adventure. Either way, make the most of this summer.

You Can't Go Back

"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold." - Frodo Baggins, The Return of the King

Change. Irrevocable change. Transformation. Drastic alteration. Inability to return to the way it was.

This is an important criteria for a good story. When the last page is turned, when the final credits have rolled, I want to know that the characters have been permanently changed. I want to see that there is no possible way for life to go back to the way it was. 

This new state of existence may be better or worse. It may be an improvement on the situation at the beginning - Cinderella marrying her Prince Henry and living happily ever after. It may be heart-wrenching - Sherlock Holmes facing death while battling his mortal enemy. It may be bittersweet - Bilbo and Frodo forever changed by the Ring, leaving Middle-earth to stay in the Undying Lands. 

Of course, being the lovely human being I am, I tend to prefer the latter two types of change. I find the heart-wrenching, gut-punching, tear-jerking forms of change to leave the strongest memory, to have the greatest effect. 

But in the end, no matter what form it takes, change must come.

Staticity is boring, mundane. If characters go through an adventure only to settle back into the same dull routine in the end, what was the point? Why does it matter if nothing changes? 

The same holds true in real life. Living life in a changeless, passive, stagnant manner is meaningless. A life of adventure, exploration, and learning - that is a life that leads to growth. And growth leads to purpose and understanding.

This whole post just took an unintended tumble down the rabbit-hole. But that's okay. In what started out as an analysis of fictional elements led me to realize why I crave adventure in my own life. See? Growth just through typing out a blog-post. It can slip in anywhere if we're open to it.

Where can you grow in your life?


P.S. I've been neglecting this little blog of mine recently; apologies for that. Writing research papers, lab reports, and a novel have hungrily consumed much of my writing energies. As I move into the last six weeks of classes, I hope to find more time for my creative endeavours.

Addendum as of 11:30pm: I decided to throw a little explanation on here as to why I penned this post.

Earlier today I was browsing spoilers for the upcoming season 3 of BBC's Sherlock, which, for those of you who don't know, is an incredible show I adore. It finally hit me - Season 3 is going to be different. Very different. Sherlock's return, the imperative trust issues between him and John, the new character addition - all of these things will necessitate change in this upcoming season. At first I was uncomfortable with this. The show is such a good thing, I hate to see major changes after just six episodes. But the insightful words of Frodo quoted above along with this dialogue popped into my head:

Bilbo: Can you promise that I will come back? 
Gandalf: No... and if you do, you will not be the same.

Bring it, I say. Let's bravely face what changes come our way... both in fiction and in reality. 

A Day on My Bike

This afternoon I spent some time on a story I fully intended to post, but that story kept growing longer and longer until I realized there was no way I could finish it this afternoon. So instead I drew up this little snapshot from my bike ride earlier this morning.


I leaned to one side as I rounded the corner, shoes firmly pressed to the peddles. A border collie came bounding out across the lawn, barking at the stranger flying down his street, and I threw him a smile. The gray clouds hovering overhead blocked the rays of sunlight and kept me cool as I traveled my regular route.

I whipped my gaze forward as the sound of tires on gravel alerted me to an approaching vehicle. With the wind roaring across my face, it was difficult to tell exactly how close the car was until I saw it. I slowed slightly and hugged the side of the road as the silver pick-up truck sped by, then began to pick up the pace.

As I crested the hill, I peddled my hardest. I rolled over the slope and stood, legs straight, neck craning forward. My bike coasted down the hill, gliding faster and faster as the momentum sped it on. The wind whipped into my face and through my hair. A laugh bubbled up from my chest. And as I sped into the wind, I could touch the sky.

The Story of Our Lives

I'm not typically a fan of love songs, so I was surprised when I first heard and promptly fell in love with Sleeping at Last's song "Turning Pages." One particular line from this piece always tugs at my heart every time I hear it:

"We're tethered to the story we must tell."

The poetical nature of this phrase is simply beautiful. It reminds me that we were all placed on this earth to tell a story. This story is our very own. It's personal, it's intimate, and no one else can share it. This story is told throughout our lives in the way which we touch the lives of those around us.

As a writer, this line has a similar secondary meaning to me. I have a story to tell, a story I am bound to write and destined to share. I know this story is meant to be told by the way it is constantly present in my mind, begging to be written, nagging to be shared. I only hope that I can do justice to this tale and present it as it is meant to be told.

This line of lyrics reminds me of a phrase spoken by the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC's long-running show Doctor Who.

"We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."

As one who believes in the Divine Creator, I believe that we are more than just stories when it's all over. Yet when we pass to the next life, we are stories to those left behind - stories and legacies. The question is, what sort of story will we leave behind? Is it one our descendants will be glad to share? Will we leave a heritage our grandchildren will proud to call their own? Or will they be ashamed of what we've left behind? Will they want to deny us and who we were? We have the choice to decide how we express our story.

We all have a story to tell - how will you tell yours?

The Magic of the Mundane

Mundane. Dull. Boring. Ordinary. Not words usually coupled with the sparkle and flash of magic. Yet I am convinced that it is the average, the conventional, the humdrum moments that lend the most to life. It is the regular that can give birth to the incredible, and the normal that can lead to the exceptional.

Yesterday I stood on the cold tile floor in the kitchen, rapping my fingertips against the counter as I waited for my bread to toast. It was an average Tuesday. The house was quiet and as soon as I finished my lunch I would be leaving. My gaze flitted across the crumbs and utensils scattered across the counter-top as an imaginary conversation between fictional characters played itself out in my head. As I mechanically moved through the process of making my sandwich - slicing the cheese that precise width I love so much, slathering mayonnaise across the crispy bread - an idea tumbled into my mind. The very idea I had been waiting on to kick-start a short story that has been lurking on the dusty upper bookshelves of my brain. I immediately knew I had stumbled on a gold mine. I just hope the editors I submit it to think so as well.

It was a banal, everyday process that led me to this clever idea, and the more I write, the more value I find in similar moments. I find inspiration in the little things. Yesterday it was sandwiches and imaginary conversations. Today it was tennis shoes. What will it be tomorrow, I wonder?

Don’t get me wrong – as someone with a vivid imagination, I love the grandiose, the magnificent, and the incredible. I find great delight in reading tales of fantastical adventures in far-off worlds. In truth, I have always found every day, ordinary life to be a boring undertaking. I find it hard to involve myself with my daily dealings when I would rather be in exciting, new places, seeing and experiencing wonders never before discovered. Yet I am beginning to realize that the ordinary moments have a function and a purpose. When I open my eyes, my heart, and my mind to the things around me, they become so much more than mundane, so much more than ordinary. They become catalysts for the truly extraordinary.