But I look forward to reading more about it!

~Chanster

The fact that you’re letting this worry prevent you from writing is not awesome at all. In fact, it’s a great way to become an awful writer. Don’t fall into that trap. The only way you can seriously become a better writer is to write.

Once you’re writing, then you can worry about the questions you have. What’s “good” is different for every author, because everyone decides on a different purpose in life. I like helping other people, so what I write is “good” if it helps other people get over problems in their lives. Other authors have more selfish purposes-they write to amuse themselves-but because they are interesting people, it is still fun to read what they’ve written.

If you’ve figured out your purpose in writing, awesome! You’re still in college, so you are way ahead of most people. If not, be patient, since it can take a *long* time to figure it out.

In the meantime, there are still all kinds of things which can benefit any writer, no matter what their purpose may be. Find a friend who cares about you becoming a writer (as opposed to someone who will just politely compliment your work) and write a short story for them every week. Ask for the most brutally honest truth, and don’t be surprised if they tear apart your first couple of stories. After those first painful few, however, you should already start to notice a substantial improvement in your writing. Hopefully, this improvement will motivate you to continue developing your writing while you think about what you want to achieve with it.

In any case, best of luck on telling your stories! :) I will check back from time to time to see if you post any of them on this blog.

I love it. Too cute

Thank you!

I know EXACTLY what you mean. I was actually thinking this exact thought in my “Gods in Literature” course this Tuesday. I was sitting there, LOVING the lecture, wishing I could learn like this forever–why does school have to end?–and then I realized how ludicrously nerdy this thought was, but I simply didn’t care. I’ve always loved school.

I actually tend not to lie that often when people ask me how I am, but I also never tend to tell the whole truth. I used to always use “ok” and then I just inflected it with whatever emotion I really felt. If people cared, they would inquire further; if they didn’t, they wouldn’t ask. Simple. At Dartmouth I formed another default, when I realized that people really don’t want to hear it. So I formed a default, which was true, because I was rarely “fine” or “ok” or “great”–the simple “tired” and people nodded in sympathy, and moved on.

I hate greetings that include “how are you?” when people don’t expect ANY response, or (worse) “what’s up?” (what does that even MEAN, anyway?). I always feel compelled to respond when people ask me a question. I just can’t accept it as simply a greeting; I don’t know why…

PS I loved how mathematical your analysis was. Tee hee. It was so you. Let us consider a Person A for every Person B who…:P

thanks so much!

perhaps this will never change, and to the larger population it is okay to be “fine, really.” but i hope that you (and everyone else) do have *someone* whom you don’t have to pretend. :)

i think forgiveness is a wonderful healing process no matter the magnitude or frequency of the wrong. not only does it grant the forgiver peace, but i think we’re at our best when we can love someone without asking them to change, earn, or return our respect.

with that said though, i think if we really respect the people we forgive and are close enough to them we’re also responsible to help them and understand them. what i mean by this is that Person A could forgive Person B for being rude and insensitive, but if the two are close then Person A probably still has a responsibility to help Person B understand how his/her actions are negatively affecting others, or at least get to the root of the issue.

another thing about forgiveness is that i think it’s often mixed up with other actions or emotions. like i know personally there are many times when i don’t like what someone else has done and i just don’t let them know about it, holding that anger/judgement/sadness inside of me. to me this is not forgiveness at all. in the end it can be just as poisonous to me as it might have been to others if i spewed everything i felt.

so even though i think forgiveness is always the answer, i also believe we probably have to find a healthy balance of what to do when we have a hard time forgiving (which we’re all probably going to have). and i think it’s important to understand why we even should forgive in the first place-why is it important not to hurt others, not to hurt ourselves? why is it better to be at peace?

i don’t know that the answers are as obvious as them seem.

p.s. what’s the worse that can happen when you forgive “too much”? i think many people would say that in that case you’ll be run over by others and nobody will respect you because they don’t have to (after all, you’ll forgive them for anything they do…)

i don’t think this is true.

i think that when we do bad things and people forgive us it often hurts just as much or more as when they punish us, hurt us back, or stand in judgement. i’m not saying everybody has a conscience (after all, sociopaths are real), but most people do. and i think eventually, albeit slowly, it affects us.

in the end i think forgiveness eats the most at our pride, and THAT is a fight worth having.

p.s. thanks for checking out my blog