%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   Second blog -- answers to an ocean of prompts |
 "Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself." CHARLIE CHAPLIN  Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you. David Whyte        This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts. |
| Prompt: Tell us a flash fiction story about a boy in a striped hat. ------------- The five-year-old put his striped hat on. His favorite hat, the one Mommy bought for the beach. Those stripes stood for something but he didn’t know what. That didn’t matter, though. He liked it that they were white like the stripes of a zebra. Maybe he became a zebra when he put his hat on. He wanted to make a sound like a Zebra, but he didn’t know how a zebra sounded. Still, making a sound, any sound, had to be better than no sound, so he screamed. He screamed as loud as he could, his small round face growing red and blotchy, his temples throbbing, his eyes bulging. “Switch that off!” his dad yelled. “What a pest!’ The boy stopped, hunching forward. “Look at me!” his dad clasped his chin. “Are you out of your mind? What was that for?” The boy hunched again, his lips twitching. He looked away although he couldn’t move his head against his dad’s grip. “Talk! What was that for?” He whispered. “My hat has stripes. I was a Zebra.” His dad let go of his chin but yanked the hat off the boy's head, then pulled off its stripes. “Now, no more stripes. No more zebra!" He threw the hat on the table. "Don’t you know your mother is asleep? Can’t you understand she’s dying?” As his dad began sobbing uncontrollably, the boy backed off, curling against the wall. Finally, he knew what those stripes stood for. Those stripes now lying on the tiles. They were stripes of pain. |
| Prompt: Tell us about your writing process – do you like music or quiet, is there a special place you go to work, do you type from the beginning or write notes with a pen and paper first? ==== I have written so many entries on the very subject in this blog alone that when the question is asked about how, where, or when I write, I feel like gagging. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I have to begin with this thought. To take writing seriously, I have to break or tweak most rules and pen, not what to lecture others or show them what I know, but only to learn a few things in the process of my writing. Other than that, any writing becomes a chore. How I write, where or when I write, pen, computer, or whatever never matters as that always changes, anyway. I’d rather explore a subject or my own insides and hope to find something new, something omitted, something that has escaped attention. To do this, most of the time I spend is with research or deep thought (somewhat). Never mind NaNo, as I take most of my NaNo work as practice, and even then, I find myself living the lives of several or all characters, which still needs research. For this reason, for this year’s NaNo, I am debating whether I should tackle a genre or a situation I am totally unfamiliar with. It may end up being crap, but at least I will have tried. |
| Prompt: Have you ever visited a farm? --- Yes, I lived on a small farm as a guest for a short time when I was in my teens. I remember well the he-goat, the tough guy of the area, who chased me around. The whole thing was really funny because I don’t run away from animals and I thought he was cute, but the owners always rushed to whisk me away since that goat had hurt several people and would probably do it again. The only people he didn’t chase was the husband and wife team of owners. The chickens were cute, and so were the sheep. What I liked most though was to sit under the fruit trees and read.  Prompt: "Life is too short to not have oysters and champagne." Chris Binkley What are your thoughts about this quote? Is that so? I mean champagne is okay, but I am not too keen on oysters. I’d rather have a cup of tomato soup and a grilled-cheese sandwich. Metaphorically speaking though, I agree that life is meant to be enjoyed to the best of our abilities, without hurting anyone and without creating unpleasantness. |
| Déjà vu: Do you believe it, and could you explain it if it were to happen to you? Have you heard or experienced any instances of it? ----- “Déjà vu” means “already seen” in French. People experiencing this feel an irresistible sense of familiarity with something, someone, or some situation that they have never encountered earlier. I am not sure if this is due to wishful thinking or bad memory or maybe it has some medical explanation. Some believe the person must have lived this in a past life or it is due to precognition, but I am not very sure about any of these explanations. To the best of my faulty memory, something like déjà vu happened to me twice. In my dinosaur time, in ninth grade, I used to really like a lit teacher. One of my aunts who herself was a Home-Ec teacher in a different school at a distant town took me to visit a friend of hers in another far-away town where I hadn’t been before. This woman we visited was also a Home-Ec teacher, and the minute we set foot inside her house, I felt I had been there before and I knew her from somewhere. What I didn’t know was/is how. During the conversation when she asked me which school I attended, we all found out that she was my lit teacher’s sister, but she didn’t resemble my teacher, at all. I must have sensed something for sure, and to this day, I can’t wrap my mind around it. The second one has to do with my daughter-in-law. The very first time I met her when my son brought her over, I felt I knew her and warmed up to her immediately. And I told her this and later to her mother, too. My son had other girlfriends earlier. I had felt nothing like that when I had met them. To this day, she feels as if she is my daughter. Once, my other son even accused me with stealing somebody else’s child. Lol! I don’t remember having any other déjà vu experiences like these two I mentioned above, but both of them can be explained in some logical way, I guess. I don't know for sure, though. There might be some way other than a past-life experience. Or just maybe? I wonder. |
| “In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much,” says Vladimir Nabokov in Speak Memory. What do you think he means and do you agree with him? ==== My question is how can a decent person enjoy life without feeling any responsibility, if not for the whole vista but for herself and those around her? Then, I might reverse myself and ask what’s wrong with enjoying life? In answer to both my questions, there is nothing wrong with enjoying life. In fact, life is made to be enjoyed. The trick is in the how of it. The problem here lies with a person who thinks he or she is enjoying life by going to the excesses like addictions or she thinks enjoying life means imitating people who think they are enjoying life. This is an important distinction, which I learned while raising my two sons. In my opinion, to enjoy life in this goal-obsessed society, we can pat ourselves on the back for our small wins and consider our losses as learning opportunities. After all, our feelings pass and no one can be deliriously happy all the time. When we choose well, invest in ourselves by being aware of the consequences of our actions, noting how we manage our time, minimizing mental clutter, noticing the stuff to be grateful about, exploring new avenues, keeping our minds active, and building positive relationships, we can’t avoid but be happy. What-the-enjoyment-of- life-is-not takes the form of naively imitating the life styles of others, doing things to excess like getting dead drunk to end up in a coma, and taking pride in hurting a person or anything alive. Then, in fairness to Vladimir Nabokov, granted that he has a pessimistic outlook due to his personal life experiences, I took this quote somewhat out of context. The way I understood it, he was talking about our short time on earth. I’m going to post here what he exactly said, be it a longish excerpt. “…first and last things often tend to have an adolescent note—unless, possibly, they are directed by some venerable and rigid religion. Nature expects a full-grown man to accept the two black voids, fore and aft, as stolidly as he accepts the extraordinary vision in between. Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much. “I rebel against this state of affairs. I feel the urge to take my rebellion outside and picket nature. Over and over again, my mind has made colossal efforts to distinguish the faintest of personal glimmer in the impersonal darkness on both sides of my life.” |
| September 18,19, and 20 Prompt: What's a current frustration of yours? My current frustration is not having enough time or quiet to write. I used to do better, but nowadays, I have to do more things in real life and I get interrupted every five minutes or so by someone, something, or other, and there goes my writing out the window. Prompt: What was your favorite game when you were a kid? When I was a kid? That’s so long ago that I barely recall. We mostly made up our own games. One favorite pastime for me and my favorite cousin and bf was sitting nicely and quietly in the same room with the adults and attaching an off-color or bawdy meaning to any most used word in the language such as “thing” “people” “say.” When the adults used those words in totally innocent sentences, the meanings would end up being bizarre or hilarious, and we’d giggle. Another one was we’d take a schoolbook and a notebook or sheets of paper (to act as if we are doing schoolwork) and write down exactly the words the adults spoke. In later life, this helped me to do schoolwork and take dictation because I could write so fast. Even in old age with arthritis in my fingers, I can still write much faster than my husband. We’d also hide some item that is widely used like a guest’s overcoat or someone’s shoes or anything and watch the adults scramble for it. Come to think of it, we were terrible and delinquent somewhat, but we passed ourselves off--very professionally, I might add--as well-behaved, model children. The only one we couldn’t fool was my mother. I guess she knew what my internal organs were made up of. Prompt: "I'm a captive of my own ambitions." Patsy Kline What is your take on this quote? ------ When someone is too ambitious and works far too hard to make his dreams and goals become reality, they might lose sight of what may be truly important to them like family and relationships. Such a person, possibly to prove to himself how good he is, can start early and work late, pushing aside everyone and everything, including his physical and mental health. Some diseases like shingles and depression can happen because of the stress one puts on himself. It is something else if the person truly enjoys hard work. That may be beneficial, but if a person pushes himself to do hard work to reach his goals against his own welfare and best judgment, he may end up losing his freedom and happiness, as if he is in a prison held captive by his own ambitions. |
| Prompt: Tell us about your writing process – do you like music or quiet, is there a special place you go. ----- I have too many entries on my writing in this blog. Just search write and writing and they abound. Besides, each project has a life of its own, which means each one is a different process. I like soft, wordless music when I am reading, but I prefer absolute quiet when I am writing, which I can’t get. That shows why I haven’t written anything of importance for a long time. What bugs me lately is that NaNo is on the horizon, and as much as I love it, I am not sure I’ll be able to do it this year. Too much real life, lately. But who knows? As doubt crosses my mind, I realize that my writing has been left uninhabited, like a haunted house and it scares me. Feeling bewitched or ghosted, I can’t avert my attention from it, staring in disbelief at my fear and indecision, I am starting to notice the walls I erect around me. Maybe I’ll start the writing anyway or maybe I’ll finish the one unfinished novel from long ago. I so want to do this, but I worry that I’ll be conflicted whether I attempt it or not. I never had a NaNo project I didn’t finish by the end of November. What if I don’t finish it this time? So what? I might as well attempt it once more, now that I have wheedled and persuaded myself while writing this entry.  As you see, here is the beginning of my writing process. The indecision, then persuasion. The rest? It depends.  |
| How have your friendships with other women inspired you, or helped you to become a better you? ----- First, the only person that can really make me better is me alone. Then, while raising one of my sons, having dealt with what bad friends could do to a person, I do understand and appreciate the value of this question and the value of truly fine and moral friends. I am careful with friendships, even though I am friendly with almost anyone, except the crooked people who act nice and call me on the phone as if they are from Medicare, which again happened a few minutes ago. You won’t believe how rude I am to such people. My rule number one: A good friend will never force you into anything you don’t want to do, even if he or she detects danger. Rule number two: A good friend will not encourage you if you are doing something wrong or hurtful to anyone else. That just about covers it, with a few amendments here and there. Having said all that, a good friendship has nothing to do with gender. It isn’t only the women who have made my life fuller. I have had and still have man friends who made much better friends than any she-friend I had. In short, I think a true friend accepts you as you are, understands your life and work and what you have done so far, and hopes the best for your future. |
| Prompt: "Your brain is always taking dictation. I'm just copying what's in my mind's eye." Maritza Moran Do you write like this? What are your thoughts? ------- I don’t know exactly how I write because I write whatever comes and I don’t like to revise a lot, either, because I don’t want to change that first impact too much. On the other hand, I agree that the brain is a compiler and not only it takes dictation, but with what it has stored, it dictates us. Just our jumbled dreams show what is in the soup up inside our heads. Then, I was surprised to read that those who investigate how-our-brains-work believe that the brain first notices race and gender before all else. Heck, I am not so sure of that. My brain even forgets the faces unless the person is important to me in some way. But then, we are bombarded with too much information from all around us, and if it weren’t for the brain’s taking dictation incessantly, with the too little time we have, how would we go about our lives? Coming back to writing, I am glad for the brain’s work, in any capacity. But being only an organ like any other, maybe the brain gets extra help from elsewhere, say the collective mind? |
| Prompt: 9-11. Write a poem or something about 9-11. ---- there will be no forgetting not just those four puny planes nineteen evil criminals with ill will toward our ways, our structures and their hatred still brewing but the valor of the brave with heroic acts of service, under tragic uncertainty, with kindness and sacrifice nurtured with affection with justice and tenderness for what we all stand for with their names etched on stone and in our hearts there will be no forgetting ---- On 9/11 It was the worst thing that could happen, the worst thing in my lifetime. My older son was working in some place downtown. They had offered him a job in Deutche Bank in one of the twin towers. He turned it down. We thought he was being foolish because it would have been a promotion. He said he just didn't have a good feeling about it. In hindsight, I guess it was his sixth sense or whatever. He lives on Long Island. On 9/11, when the first plane hit, he was just getting out of the train. My husband and I saw it on CNBC. Sue Herera was talking. She said something is happening in downtown, and they turned the cameras to the window behind her. Then we saw the first plane half in and half out of the building, I called my son's cell. He was trying to get to work, but people were going the wrong way. He said no one knew what was happening. I told him not to go to work and that there was some kind of a danger. So he walked with everyone uptown and ended in a cafe around Columbia University, in the meantime, periodically talking with us on his cell. He said that people were saying we are being attacked and maybe it would be the third World War. There were all kinds of stories going on, he said and no one really knew what was happening. We became his only news source. Toward the evening, the LIRR opened. We told him to take the train and go back home, and he did. After that, he was greatly traumatized. He left his job and tried to work in several other places part time. Then, for a long time, years in fact, he couldn't work. Only lately, he's picking himself up. He didn't go for help or anything, either. We helped him because he refused to take government money. But his is nothing compared to what happened to us the USA citizens that day. We lost our trust, our innocence, in other people. To this day, I can't erase from my mind what I saw on the TV screen. I can't ever forget. |
| Prompt: "To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness." Mary Stuart, Queen Of Scots What are your views about this? ------ This is all nice and very good, but how much does it have to do with true happiness, rather happiness with meaning? Granted, an above-described individual has lasting, positive interactions and his or her need to belong is satisfied. This is all good and possibly a step toward happiness. In my case, however, I am the happiest when I am doing something I like, whatever that may be at any given moment. I am also at my happiest during the times of solitude when I can get in touch with myself. Still, would I want solitude all the time? Definitely no. And in the same vein, would I want to be around people, even the people I love, all the time? Again, no. Thus, a good proportion is what is needed to feel happy, most of the time. Even so, happiness being the goal of life seems lacking to me. There is something there that doesn’t correspond with the needs of human nature. This reminds me of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, in which the hero escaped from paradise to live in a risky world where he had a choice of effort to make a difference. More meaning exists in a world of suffering, suspense, and humanness. Thus, I think a meaningful life, rather than an always happy one, should be the ultimate goal for mankind. Striving toward something, working against injustice, and bettering oneself and the lives of others make people who they are. After all, one can be stupid, ignorant, lazy, and happy. Prompt: As you go through your day, how much do you think of the existence of the sun? Do you love it or do you hate it? Do you think at one time or another it can be a threat to earth’s existence? And what about the time when humans worshipped it? --- I have never really given a thought to the existence of the sun. It just is. It is there. Still, I have to love the sun or at least, like it. Without it, none of us would be alive. I don’t much care for its hot, scorching effect during its hottest time in summer when its rays hit directly on us with more force than it does during the winter months. Sun as a symbol means warmth, joy, ease, color, and fullness. It can also symbolize intellect, understanding, glory, and fame. A ray of sunshine, for example, may mean a sudden grasp of a situation or a piece of happy news. Sun is the star of hot plasma which aids life and it is our ultimate source of energy for life. The effects of the sun on our being has been recognized since prehistoric times, even to the degree of it being worshipped as a deity. Yet, it is not a deity but just a star with electromagnetic properties, providing a weak tidal effect on the planets around it as it is the largest object around us. It is estimated that it has had the power to stay active for about five billion years with five billion more years of possible life. That’s good to know! But if it expands or dies down, I’m sure it will be a threat to the earth’s and other planets’ existence. |
| Prompt: What does the phrase “Closed Door” mean to you? If there is such a situation, what’s behind the door? Why is it closed? --- A closed-door means that something or someone inside doesn’t want to be exposed for any reason. It might be something horrific, something secret, or something that’s being formulated as a surprise or shock for later. One way to have closed-door opened is to come up with a clever, polite request, which may have the capacity to open closed doors and also, closed minds. Another way could be that I might knock gently on a closed door, but if it still doesn’t open, I won’t linger and worry why that door is closed. Instead, I’d look for another door that opens when it sees me. That might be a better option that might have been meant for me to take. If a door I want to open--such as a career choice or a personal wish--is closed at my face, then I’ll think that wasn’t meant for me, and I am sure powers-that-be have something more beneficial for my life instead. So, I’ll look for opportunities elsewhere. Yet, if someone shuts me in a room and closes the door on me so that I can’t get out, then I am going to kick that door open because I will not allow anyone to shut me, to let me rot, or shame me into silence without my consent. |
| Prompt: If you were to describe yourself as a tree, what kind of tree would you be? What do you see as your life cycle as a tree? ---- Since I have difficulty to see me as a tree, I'll write about the kind of tree I'd love to be. I would love to be an oak to supply acorns to cute squirrels. I like to see things from a distance but with everything surrounding them, and certainly, an oak has the larger view, especially from its top branches. In addition, oaks are deep-rooted and they can exist in clusters or as lone trees, and they hold their place, come rain or shine. I like my aloneness but I can also relate to people. In fact, I love people. An oak also casts a great shadow, sheltering other living things from the rays of the scorching sun in summer, and it provides a home for birds and feeds the earth it stands on with its fallen leaves turning to mulch underneath. All in all, an oak loves life and living things, and so do I. Several decades ago, our house in another state had a large backyard with about 200 oak trees, an apple orchard, and several other kinds of trees. It used to be my favorite place to live. There, I fell in love with the oaks, with their resilience, their regal bodies, and limbs with unassuming colors, only to be adorned with green in spring. We had a couple of hurricanes hitting the state, then. Although we lost a few other trees, none of the oaks fell. They were resistant and hardy. I think those are excellent qualities to wish for. |
| Do you still keep a personal journal? How is it different from your blog, or are the two connected in some way? ---- I wish I could keep to that journal all the time. I used to keep one until I got married. Then, for several reasons, I stopped. I wish I hadn’t. I lost so much material because of it. Now, I write in a physical personal journal every once in a while, but I am not good with it. I think in the bottom of my hesitancy lies the fact that after I die, the journal will stay and some people may be hurt reading what I say. As to my journal’s relationship with my blog, there is no relationship there. In the blog, I answer to prompts and I try to evade personal stuff, although I am totally honest with what I write.  Prompt: What have you learned from blogging? ---- I don’t know if I learned anything, but it is fun to see how each blogger responds to the same prompt. We are all different and our experiences are different, too. This makes the answers varied and interesting. I am guessing because I try to answer all the prompts and I usually write in a rush, my writing is gaining speed even if a form of triteness together with it; however, I am not complaining since my expression used to be more didactic, which I wanted to shake off. |
| Prompt: "I think quotes are very dangerous things." Kate Bush Do you agree with this? --- From where I stand, I think quotes make great prompts to write from, but to a person who doesn’t read or write much, I can see how they can be boring and even threatening. This may be because some people dislike the feeling when a quote deftly points to their shortcomings, especially if such people have never thought about or tried to improve their own internal workings. Prompt: “The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.” Leo Tolstoy Agree or disagree and what do you think Tolstoy meant? --- From the pen of a master, good vs.bad or good vs. good do not matter. Either theme will provide an excellent story. Still, in good vs.good, the conflict may have the inclination to grow larger and deeper. This resembles a couple of people at odds with each other with both showing equally good points; such a conflict attracts the interest of an onlooker more strongly, the onlooker being the reader. Surely, this theme is more interesting but also more difficult to write. The same clash may happen in real life when a couple in a relationship break apart and their friends don’t know what to do as they like each person equally. |
| Prompt: Which cartoon character best represents your personality? ---- Hahaha! I might have a personality split here. I might be the Piglet (A.A. Milne) or a Max Goof (Goofy’s son), at times, to turn into a Mighty Mouse. About the word Mighty, I might be wrong, of course. Very very wrong! Internally, I would have liked to be the Beauty in Beauty and the Beast, my favorite kiddie story of all time, if for nothing but for taming the beast and getting hold of his library. (Heck, in real life, I can't even tame a dog because of respect to a dog's personality.) Fact is, I don’t believe any one cartoon character represents me. I think I am a patchwork of several, like a patchwork quilt, and I might take under my cover just about everything. |
| Prompt: "Technology is cool but you've got to use it as opposed to letting it use you." Prince Do you agree with Prince? --- I certainly do since we should never let anything or anyone use us, but is it possible with technology? When everything is computerized and all the companies you do work with ask you to do business with them on the web instead of the snail mail, when the third or fourth older generation have no inkling of the techie-talk the youngsters employ in conversations, and when even the government agencies prefer the web, how is it possible to use the technology instead of being used by it? Not that I am against it. On the contrary. At least, I am somewhat of a passable user, but there are a few oldies living around me who haven’t yet mastered cut-and-paste or are terrorized by the sudden pop-up ads on their computers, if they own a computer. Then, most or some of them cannot even use an android cellphone or even a flip-phone. They are now bound to loneliness or dependency on others. One of my neighbors complain that when their daughter and grand-kids come to visit, they spend more time with their phones than with her. I think, that is sad! Then, among the negatives are the fraud committed through technology and the websites that do not respect the individual and push on their users their political and social ideas and beliefs, or concepts dealing with everyday things. Despite all that, I love the new technology. I wish it was there when I was growing up and wanting to learn more and more. Not all is lost though because now, it helps me tremendously. Computerized checkouts for example, and having the option to order online instead of going from store to store looking for what I need, and if I am searching for a word or an information, the option to use a search engine. The new technology is entertaining, too. YouTube anyone? Needless to say, we are all on Writing.com right now, and that, in itself, is more than the frosting on the cake. It is the whole cake itself.  |
| Prompt: "This is the precept by which I have lived. Prepare for the worst, expect the best and take what comes." Hannah Arendt How do you feel about this quote? === Good quote! Possibly it would work for most people. As for me, I can’t expect the worst because I can’t foresee the worst or the best. So, I settle for the middling something. As to taking what comes, yes. That works very well for me. At times, it takes more guts than I have, but I take most anything on the chin and try not to blink. The worst may be heartrending, but the best could prove to be even worst than the worst because once you feel you’ve hit the best, where else to go and what else to do becomes a problem and turns life into something dull and unbearable. In that case, the best may prove out to be worst. In either case, worst or the best, for me, there is always scope for improvement. |
| Prompt: What kinds of things or events give a person a broken, shattered heart? --- Most people fall to pieces when they lose someone or a love affair, marriage, or a relationship goes sour and dies. As for me, what happened at 9/11 broke my heart more than the tragic ending of the relationship of my parents and the way it affected their lives to the ends of their lives. Plus, I feel shattered each time someone gets hold of a gun or something similar and commits mass murder, especially when that happens to innocent children in schools. Then I feel even more terrible when the newscasters bend the events to their biases to blame the wrong person or persons. When friends and people close to me die or fall in dire straits such as fatal illnesses and such unfortunate events, I feel broken, too. I also feel bad when I hurt someone, unknowingly or out of necessity, even when they are the one who caused it. It is a rough world, isn’t it! Prompt: According to you, what’s something that everyone, absolutely everyone, in the entire world can agree on? == After the basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, medical care) are taken care of, I think everyone wants a sense of belonging. That search for belonging makes people attach themselves to people or groups, even though sometimes those groups are against their best interests. Then, I am quite sure, we all want World Peace. We don’t like chaos, political, international, social, or personal, even if we cause all that and may not be aware of our own doings. Then comes learning, maybe. It may not be the kind they teach in schools but the kind people chase after themselves. It may even be something frivolous as what a neighbor is up to, but it is still learning, isn’t it! |
| Prompt: Have you ever traveled to a foreign country? What country would you most like to visit? ---- Yes, I have been to Canada, all over Europe, and a few places in the Middle East. Some but not all my impressions are in this book item: "Jottings From Journeys"  . Unfortunately, I didn’t/don’t get around to writing in it. I am not too crazy for travel, anymore, because I don’t think I have the guts to put up with the physical challenges of traveling, but I would have liked to go all over Ireland and Scotland. We did pass through Ireland, but it didn’t feel as if I’ve been there. Plus, I love the Irish and the authors from Ireland and Scotland. Then, when I traveled, rather than the sights and sounds, I focused on people more, which points to my people watching habits. I mostly found a connection with others, which made me more aware of my own self’s inclinations. Different cultures and how tolerant they are of strangers (or not) have added to the strength of my identity and love for the world. As they say, traveling can be a stress reducer, but it can also add to a person's stress. Honestly speaking, I get more stressed when I travel with people in my family, immediate or extended. I had my best travel experiences when I was alone. Still, as they say, traveling helps to reinvent yourself. It did, for me, probably only in the beginning. I think, at my age, I have been reinvented enough. Then, maybe I am not as adventurous as I used to think I was. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
. It was a sad song I didn't actually know, so it was interesting to me. 
