Blogfest 2009

Cool. I was the good kid in school who secretly wanted to be a bit bad. I would love to finally be a rebel. Banned for dangerous ideas.  I would have to get a leather coat and wear it around. Maybe pierce something. Besides, some of my favorite books have been banned so I would be in great company.
 
I don’t believe ideas are dangerous. I believe failure to openly talk about issues and perspectives are what can really be harmful. I don’t think people (especially teens) have to be protected from ideas and concepts.  If we only hear and listen to what the majority thinks on an issue then we are missing out on having the whole picture. How do you know your own views on things if you’ve only heard one perspective?

This is a two part answer.  First are the hobbies that I actually do: reading, knitting, going to movies, hiking with dog, cooking (I got a cupcake cookbook recently and have been experimenting), travel, and ocean kayaking.
 
Then there are all the hobbies that I wish I had, but seem like a lot of effort so I never really do them. For example, I love the idea of being a runner, but the actual running and jogging is a lot of work and not so much fun. In theory, there is a runner’s high, but I’ve never had it.  Now I only run if someone is chasing me which thankfully doesn’t happen a lot.

This is a hard question. Some of the options I considered:

Ability to Fly: Handy skill, plus it means the ability to avoid long security lines at the airport and having to take off your shoes. The downside is I don’t look that great in the Spandex suit that is required, and it would really screw with my hair that barely behaves as it is.

Ability to Read Minds: Love the idea of knowing what people are really thinking, but major downside is I might not really want to know what they think of me. Or even worse yet, what if they aren’t thinking about me at all?

Set Things on Fire: While it sounds really good to be able to make something burst into flames just by looking at it, I can see some major negatives. One of them being what if you were having a really lousy day and then the next thing you know you’ve got people running around in flames everywhere? After a few times I’m betting no one would hang out with you.

Bend Metal With Your Mind: Really? How often do you need bent metal? It’s not like I want to make a car or am trapped frequently in collapsed metal buildings.

After all this consideration I’ve decided to go with the ability to travel back in time. Think of all the times something came flying out of your mouth and you thought “ACK! I want to suck that back in.” Or all the times you trip and fall down in front of everyone or realize that after talking to your crush you realize you have a giant gob of lunch stuck in your teeth. If you could rewind time you could stop those things from happening.

My parents were always big readers so I grew up going to the library on a weekly basis. As soon as I was old enough to grasp the concept that it was someone’s job to write the books I knew that was what I wanted to do. I loved the idea of creating whole new worlds, creating characters, seeing my books in print, and having people read what I wrote.  Then there is the added bonus that a lot of the time you can work in your sweatpants with your hair tied back in a scrunchie that has been around since 1990.