Questions and Answers ...

I've started with Shimelle's new online class "True Stories" today.  To quote Shimelle - True Stories covers fifteen different ways to approach your story and commit it to paper. You can use these prompts as a scrapbooker and see your journaling evolve to something that will be a treasure to read. You can use the prompts as a blogger to make your entries feel like honest, unique and compelling tales. Or you can just use them in general as a collection of ways to add a bit more excitement to your writing if you’re feeling like you’re in a rut of writing the same way on every project.

I've agonised over which approach to take with this class - do I put pen to paper, create a journal, write a blog, do a layout focusing on each prompt, try it as a mini album, do it digitally - have a nervous break down !!!!  Eventually I got realistic and decided that at this busy time of the year for me, the only real way I could cope was to do a rough written draft of each prompt in a notebook, transfer this to my blog, complete with relevant pictures.  I figure that at least doing it this way I will have ready made journaling and appropriate photographs together ready to go when time permits to do a few layouts or worse case known at least the stories are recorded.

So Prompt 1 is all about daring to ask and answer questions - doing a personal FAQ that others often ask or perhaps writing a letter of advice to a child or friend, even to yourself.

To myself at age 18

Hi Kid – Bet you’re surprised to hear from me – and maybe just a little relieved too because here we are in 2010 -we've made it this far - never thought we would did you?

18 will be a big year for you – you probably realise that already. Lots happening, things to think about, different directions to take. Know how you worry a lot about whether the decisions you make are the right ones? How you are always agonising over which path to take, which choice to make?

I’m here to tell you kid, not to sweat it. Sure I should probably point out that you taking the left hand fork in the road rather than the right when it shows up in front of you in a few months time might be a better option and in a couple of years from now when you decide to flip a coin over an important decision, don’t settle for tails, keep going until a head comes up.

But really there’s no point, ultimately it doesn’t really matter in the long run. Every journey in life has it’s up and downs, every road has a bump or two and a few twists and turns and you know what? That’s OK; it’s what keeps it all interesting. It's what happens outside of the bumps and twists that makes life worth living.

So go on – don’t worry so much, choose left, choose right, just keep moving ahead – your journey will be remarkable; I promise!