In Ten Years Time!

(Write a story about someone going back to school as a mature student.)

Well here I sit!   

Seems a sad and solitary comment for one beginning on a new and exciting adventure! 

Well I may as well get on with it. 

Hello I’m Kate.  The last time I sat in a formal classroom was many moons ago.  In truth, watching and listening to the other students, it also seems like it was in a land far far away.

It is our first class and I feel like I am in a foreign place.  The dress and language and shared anecdotal conversations tell me I’m in over my head.  I’m pretty much ignored but that is better than the occasional glance followed by a snicker.  My hope is that,  if  they can endure my strangeness long enough, they will hear, see and possibly feel we are all trying to do the same thing.  Pull our thoughts and fantasies from our minds and onto paper in a story, poem or novel.

And so it begins,  Creative Writing 101.

The lecture is typical,  the expanded ego of the lecturer sprinkling in her accomplishments along with useful information.   Some students lounge lazily in their seats with no indication of note taking, rather arrogant looking in my mind.  A few others hunch over keyboards or notebooks giving the appearance of trying to capture every spoken word.  A fellow on my right,  who I will later know as Tom, looks like he wants to interrupt constantly with more pertinent or interesting information than the lecturer. I sit quietly trying not to reinforce the stereotype I’m sure they all feel about me.  Why is she here?  What can she possibly have to offer?  My note taking has always been bullets and keywords.   If keywords do not stir the exact memory of the comment then I am already lost.

And now we get to it,  the first assignment.  I can’t believe it is a “let’s get to know each other better” story assignment.  I positively hate them.  They reveal little in fact but it is a lazy way to all become slightly more familiar with one another and I suppose it helps the instructor find the proper beginning point in our mixed group.  I also assume it is meant to be nonfiction.

I am a person who has no reason,  zero reasons, not to be totally open,  crystal clear,  no skeletons in this closet, and yet,  “get to know you” questionnaires make me very uncomfortable!

Is it that we all wished to be liked or accepted or admired and an answer could be,  maybe, possibly, unacceptable to another?

~~~~~

And so I wrote this story as my first assignment.  It is in the form of a questionnaire.

IN TEN YEARS TIME!

In ten years time where do you expect to be?

What a crazy question to be on a ...”I’d like to get to know you” question sheet.  

I scan up and down the list of questions, they are all pretty straight forward really,  just a couple are?   well?   different.   

What do you do when you cross the street?.......... Hmmmm?   No answer!  Do they want something as simple as ...look both ways?

Tell about a nice gift you have received........That one is fairly normal I suppose if you are trying to evaluate a person’s underlying values.

What are the most important things in your life?..........Again a nice measure to see if a person is a material girl,  an emotional mess or has her priorities straight.

I’d be very good working as a ..............This could be an interesting way to see how a person sees themselves, their strengths or imagined strengths.

I guess the real question is,  do I want to get involved in something that asks you to fill out a “I’d like to get to know you” questionnaire?  

Maybe it saves time or makes the beginning process run smoother but it feels like the first day at scout camp.   These are not questions with right or wrong answers like a math quiz but rather they are subject to interpretation by a someone or something, an unknown!   

The questions fill one side of a page.

Sometimes I scream when?.........

In school I always fell asleep in which class?.........

If it rains I?.........

See what I mean?   Just questions,  not like asking for personal information,  the kind you should guard and not share,  just questions...

The one that really got to me....

In ten years time I expect to??.........Wow who really knows?  Maybe if you are in a course of study or climbing the corporate ladder,  you may have expectations but if you are just a free drifter like me,  how do you answer that?

It does make you think,  maybe about wasted time or the free drifting life that seems to have no set destination but even a free drifter has some vague goal or a couple desired things in the future.  Nothing set in cement,  there still is not enough freedom to really be a totally free drifter, to imagine a dream and act upon it without regard to others.   

It is the others that create the problems.  The singular me could set off today to the great unknown,  drift like a leaf in a stream.   Now that is funny,  even a leaf in a stream can expect to eventually find itself in the ocean, unless of course it hits a snag and gets stuck along a bank or becomes part of a beaver dam or follows a slow moving tributary instead of the main channel.    Hmm?   A very good example of why that is a seriously stupid question!

Thinking about this I get the distinct feeling that perhaps I am not a joiner.  Would joining a group make me less of a free drifter?    Probably!   There might be together activities or meetings or shared communications.

Crumpling up the paper to make a jump shot to the trash can, I stop,  just stop and freeze for a moment,  smoothing it out again,  I wonder,  maybe my life needs more sparkle,  interesting possibilities,  maybe this group can fill a need in me or complete me in some way.....hmmmm?   I wonder?

~~~~~

I have no earthly idea if this will be viewed in a positive way by the instructor but I don’t intend to try to fit in, I intend to add variety to a caustic cocktail of futuristic aliens or artery biting werewolves this younger generation are so fond of writing about.   I can’t imagine their worlds, their realities so I find myself downgrading my own efforts but really,  I hope we can all learn from one another.  

Well, time’s up and the first hurdle has been successful.  I showed up!

Maybe by the end of our association I will know more about alternate lifestyles, alternate universes, a few new swear words and generally become younger and more accepting in my thinking.

I smile as I leave the class and one of the girls nudges my arm,  “we sometimes go for coffee after class” ..she hesitates…”if you would ever wish to join us.”