The turn of the millennium seems, well, a millennium ago! I did so much writing then.
The short stories I wrote in the early 2000s helped me process the new field I was entering, the world of education where it intersected with at risk and vulnerable youth. As an educator, I had to grow beyond my biases and judgements, those fear-based ways of holding on. Like a snake, I stretched my jaw through writing to take in and process amazing stories of resiliency, failure, and the hard snap of systems based on monetary measurables. Thankfully, in those years I was surrounded by amazing support from Youth Opportunities Unlimited and the Boys and Girls Club.
At the turn of the Millennium, there was the Internet, and I was an early adopter. No Facebook, no Instagram or TickTock. The iPhone wasn’t out yet, and Blackberry had its simple, but brilliant, message system (remember BBMS??). The newspaper, gossip, the radio shows and 6 o’clock news on TV were our information highways. We saw the same news at the same time. We could observe our local neighbourhood, our workplace, but we weren’t linked to instant news and entertainment.
The stories I wrote came from observations. The style of telling couldn’t be the usual hero’s journey because there was so much to overcome, and sadly, losses and more losses. All the unanswered prayers.
Most of the stories were told within a short time frame, but formed by a kaleidoscope of views. Me stretching my skin to understand the whole picture, and how to present it? Through dis-connection. In the end, the patterns coalesced, the endings not endings at all. Or writing an “if only.”A skin shed, and the living carry on.
Home: 10 Short Stories is shed, at least in the first layer and available to readers through Amazon. Though that won’t be the end of it.
laurawythe 