Читать книгу The Blog & the Journal - Writing About You - - Cecilia Jr. Tanner - Страница 15

Years ago, I asked one of my neighbours, who was a reformed alcoholic, if he had trouble not drinking. “Never,” said Norm, the horse trainer, “There’s so much to do all the time. I just get high on life.”

And that’s what journal writing can be all about, getting high on life and your position in it. Often when I have a new class of freshmen (freshpeople?) in September who are feeling very alien to the campus and city, (most of the students come from out of town), I try to help them relax by telling them that the people who belong at the University are the people who pay their tuition and want to be there.

“There are lots of beautiful people who laugh in groups and seem to know everyone, and know how to work the system and just seem to belong. But they don’t belong anymore than you do. You are just as important as the suave-looking socialites. If the truth were known, probably half of those people are repeating courses they have failed.”

I tell them I don’t want to see anyone hiding behind their trench coat. I want the students to contribute to the class like the important people that they are.

“No one can contribute what you can contribute because no one will see what you see with your unique upbringing, your genetic inheritance, and your life experience.”

When they realize that I am not going to single them out for ridicule, they relax. So much self-consciousness disappears and they start to learn, and many even enjoy the learning process.

And everyone can do that in their lives not just their school life. You can be proud of who you are when you realize you belong, with all the rights necessary to live in this world, and you have every right to develop your life so that you are proud to be alive. You are in this life, and you do belong.