October 2014
I just visited my friend Angela's blog, Dancing with the Elephants. http://angelabentley.blogspot.com/ She just graduated last spring from Sequim High School and started at Barnard College in New York. I've known Angela since preschool. She just graduated high school last spring and just started at Barnard College in New York City, a highly prestigious private women's liberal arts school. She goes to a college where everyone is named Elizabeth or Caroline or Mary or Jane (you know what I'm talking about). Something from Pride and Prejudice. Everyone always new Angela was destined for great things; she excels in nearly everything she does (count for dancing--that's one thing I have on her lol). Born two months apart, she and I were in the same grade until she came back from spending a semester in Panama and decided to skip eight grade and go straight to high school. She busied herself with high-level academic classes, photography, journalism, being the Sequim Irrigation Festival Queen, international club, student government, tennis, ballet (she and I were in the same class), and theater (and I probably left out a few of her many accomplishments) and still effortlessly ended up a Valedictorian, always fantasizing of someday getting out of our small town and doing more than she could ever dream of doing here. She is such an inspiration for me, and looking at her blog even inspired me to get my own blog off the ground.
Gosh, every time I hear anything about Angela, it makes me want to go do something productive and incredible. It seems like that's all Angela does! When I doubt myself, I think "if Angela can do that, why can't I?" Her blog and facebook page are filled with pictures of her at book signings or a high tea date with her mother or an Idina Menzel musical or a concert of a Swedish folk band.
There was a moment a few years ago where I saw a picture of Angela on facebook and almost didn't recognize her. It was professionally taken, and in elegant black and white: she looked like a woman. She looked like a grown-up, beautiful woman! That's when I realized that we weren't kids anymore. That was one of those moments.
One thing about Angela is that she reads. A lot. How does she read all that? I've had the same books sitting on my shelf for years. I've said it before and I'm going to say it again: I'm a writer, not a reader. I have never been a good reader. Nevertheless, it is one of my life goals to develop a love and skill for reading. I have a public library, a high school library and a college library at my disposal, and I could take advantage of those resources to accomplish so much. I feel like libraries are heavily underrated. I am so grateful for those opportunities, but I haven't been taking advantage of them and I'm kicking myself for it. For crying out loud, I am a high school senior and never have I once checked out a book at my school's library! I was writing in my diary in this said library earlier this year and I saw a book staring at me on the New Arrivals shelf, and I recognized the title from somewhere. "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I picked it up and started reading it. It was then that I realized that reading books didn't have to happen in a sequence of asking for it for Christmas (Foodopoly by Wenonah Hauter or a host of Micheal Pollan books) or buying it from Port Book and News in Port Angeles. I could read one for free at the place I go every day anyways! It's so convenient! Isn't that pathetic that the average student doesn't even know how to use a library for its original purpose? I would pick this book up every few days to continue reading, but one day it wasn't there: no longer being a new arrival, it was relocated to elsewhere in the library. I had a hard time finding it. This year I seriously need to learn how to library. I will make this effort in honor of Angela.