Elizabeth Scott is the author for this Thursday's Author Tales. Elizabeth is the author of Bloom, Perfect You, Stealing Heaven and Living Dead Girl. Now that summer is over, more or less, I asked Elizabeth what she considered her most memorable summer, and here is what she had to say...
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When I got the request for a blog post about my most memorable
summer, for once I knew exactly what I was going to write about.
(Usually, when I'm asked to write a guest blog, my reactions are:
joy! Someone wants me to write something! 2. panic! Someone
wants me to write something!)
But this one--oh, this one is easy.
My most memorable summer was the one that took place after my
freshman year of college. There weren't a lot of jobs available
where I lived, but the hardware store where I'd worked as a
teenager was willing to hire me back--but with a catch. They didn't
need any cashiers, which is what I'd done before, but they did need
warehouse workers.
I needed the money.
I took the job.
I have never EVER worked so hard in my life. I got up at six, got
dressed, ate breakfast, and then went into work, where I spent
eight hours in an unair-conditioned warehouse unloading freight. I
learned how to use a cherry-picker and drive a forklift. I learned
it was possible to spend six hours up in the highest reaches of the
warehouse, inventorying screws, and not die from the heat.
And then, when work was done, I'd drive home. To my parents'
lovely--but unair-conditioned-- house.
Yes, that's right. My parents don't have central air. I never liked
that, but that summer, the summer I woke up sweating, went to work
and spent all day sweating, and came home to sweat some more taught
me one vital thing about myself:
I like air-conditioning. I like it A LOT.
It seems trivial, I know, but that was the summer that marked the
end of my time living where I grew up. I realized I wanted to do
more than work difficult jobs for low pay, that I wanted to do
something--anything--that would let me live and work where I had
choices that I would never find living in the world I knew best.
I don't regret growing up where I did. But I don't miss it, and
that summer, that final summer I spent at home, was the one where I
learned that sometimes you have to let go of everything you know and take a chance. So I went back to college, and the next summer,
I found a place to live near campus and got a job.
Both of them had air-conditioning--and I learned I could live on my
own.
I learned I was more than my parents' daughter.
I learned I was me.
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Thanks Elizabeth for that great post! What is your most memorable summer??
For more information on Elizabeth Scott and her novels visit the following links:
Web site: http://www.elizabethwrites.com/"
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/_elizabeth_scott