Monday, October 23, 2006

Five Things Meme

Following Litlove, Dorothy W., and Danielle, here are five things that most of you don’t know about me:

1. I skipped grade three. I gather that the current conventional wisdom is that this is a bad idea so schools rarely skip students ahead now. But I can’t say I’ve ever felt a gaping hole in my life where grade three ought to be. I never felt at a disadvantage because the majority of my classmates were a year older than me. The only time that I can recollect age becoming an issue was in university when my friends reached legal drinking age before I did. But then, that’s what fake ID is for...

2. In my early teens, my best friend and my worst enemy were twins. This state of affairs no doubt said more about the twins’ relationship with each other than about mine with either of them.

3. In high school, I was a fan of both punk and heavy metal music. I didn’t experience this as a contradiction. My thought was that if you take each of these genres to its extreme, they wrap around and blur into a similar sound. My friends of these musical persuasions disagreed, so I had to hang out with them in shifts. Fortunately a wardrobe in which black leather predominated worked well in both worlds.

4. I consider it the height of decadence (in a good way) to go alone to see a movie at the cinema in the afternoon.

5. I used to be a distance runner. My greatest ambition was to one day run the Boston Marathon. In the intervening years, recurring knee injuries have made it difficult to run at all. I have come to terms with the fact that I’m unlikely ever to run any marathon, let alone a prestigious affair like Boston that requires a qualifying time to enter. Despite this, I believe that I maintain a runner’s sensibility (although, alas, not a runner’s physique).

I was casting about for a literary connection in all this, since I do my best to stick to theme here. Then I tracked the meme back to its source and found that it did indeed have a literary genesis. The whole idea behind asking various bloggers to list five things about themselves was to collect material for writing. I must say that as I thought about aspects of myself and my experience that I could share here, it occurred to me that there was some rich material there that I haven’t yet mined for stories. Those twins for example—I really ought to write a story that features a pair of twins at odds with one another.

I'm very curious about what five things those of you who haven't yet chimed in on this meme might be inclined to share about yourself...

10 comments:

Rebecca H. said...

Thanks for pointing out the source of the meme. Such a list IS a good source of stories, isn't it? And maybe even more so if you put it together without knowing the reason.

Anonymous said...

My best friend's mother is an elementary school teacher. They don't put students ahead and they don't fail them either.

I miss going to movies in the afternoon. I suppose I could...but then I'd have to work in the evening which kinda ruins the whole decadent aspect. I'm happy to see I'm not the only one that goes to movies alone.

Anonymous said...

There's certainly a terrific story in those twins!

litlove said...

I just love the thing about the twins - and you're right, it's perfect material for fictionalisation. I also like the thought of you as a long-distance, black leather clad, punk/heavy metal fan. Such a beautiful collection of contradictions, all neatly woven together.

Kristin Ohlson said...

The twins are definitely a rich vein! Do it!

Thanks for linking back to the original source for this "five things you don't know about me" idea.

jau said...

I assume you're a good writer since you're such an astute reader, so wonder if you have some references to recommend about how to fashion and mold facts into story shapes? I have a couple of similarly startling circumstances that would make great stories, but when I begin to write about them, I find myself either 'factual' or emotional in that I tell my feelings about the people. I want to write a story, not relate events!

Stefanie said...

Were the twins identical and did you ever get them mixed up by accident?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing! I did something similar a while back, I think it was '20 Things people didn't know about me'. Funny thing is, I forgot to mention that in grade 8, I skipped half a year (I guess that means I was only half-bright. Heh). At that time in the late 70s there was some deal with my grade school that if one did really well, one would go a semester early to their high school. For me, I hated it. Lost touch with all my grade 8 friends, and was somewhat of an square peg in grade 9, since I came a semester late.

--patricia

LK said...

I can't get over the envy of you getting to skip third grade!

Now, what was that other stuff about twins? :)

Anonymous said...

I love reading these sorts of things--I am pretty nosy when it comes down to it. So, do you know those twind now? It would make it hard hanging out with one when you hated the other. If there was a cinema near me I would be going alone all the time! My husband is not one for movies--I love them, but rarely ever go now. Thank heavens for Netflix!