The Starting Point

This year I got Mr. S- for my Science teacher. Last year I had him as my “main” teacher so I got to know him pretty well. In fact, my friends and I still love to bug him with our random questions of the day (which reminds me – Crest or Colgate?).

Anyways, today during Science class Mr. S- was talking about the lab reports we have due this coming Monday. To be quite honest with you I was only half listening because, well, it’s Science, but I did hear him start talking about the difference between taking Academic and Applied Science for next year. Mr. S- went on to say that if we were planning on going to college or university, we would definitely need to take Academic to even be considered. He than got this really serious look in his eye and looked at the class and said, “There’s no such thing as fate or destiny in this world. You have to make your own luck .”   It was the way he said it with that . . . that note of finality that made it seem like one of those moments in books where the main character looks back at their journey and sees that part as the real starting point of the story.

I don’t think I necessarily agree with Mr. S – on the “there’s no such thing as fate” thing. I think that maybe, on the most basic of terms, there’s already a plan laid out for us. It’s like we each get a colouring page – let’s say you get one with Winnie the Pooh on it and I’ll get a Barbie one – and we may think it’s dull or even horrible, but once we start colouring it in, it starts to look better. If we add a heart sticker on Barbie’s shirt it totally makes her eyes stand out and that teal for the sky really lightens up the whole picture.  Does that make sense?

Well, anyways, no matter if fate is real or just another word with an “e” at the end, I feel like I need to get started on something. I have a brand new-and-improved New Year’s Resolution. And it involves this blog.

You see, when I went to my younger brother’s Christmas concert last December, the programs they were handing out had a little poem on the back. When I first saw it I thought it was really nice so I held on to it, and afer finding it laying around on my desk around the same time I saw the movie Julie & Julia, I got an idea.

What if I, like Julie Powell, created a goal for myself – something to do in about a year’s time. Something original. Something inspiring. Maybe even something life changing? What if I, starting on the the week after Advent officialy ended, set a goal for myself to do ALL of the things on the back of that little program and document them on this blog, all before December 24th, 2010?

Let me just quote Julie for a second from her book, Julie & Julie: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, from the part where Julie is talking to her mother about starting her blog, on page 42:

“Don’t worry. It’s just for a year. I’ll be cooking every night and writing every morning. It’ll be like a regimen.”

“Mm-hm? And why are you doing this again?”

“What do you mean?” What an obtuse question – though, I did dimly realize, one I’d not actually asked myself. I noticed my voice had gotten a little squeaky.

“Well – I mean, maybe this isn’t the best time to start a new project like this? While you’re trying to move?”

“Oh – no. No, no, no, no, it’ll be fine. I have to eat, don’t I? Besides, it’s already out there. Online, where anybody can see it. I have to go through with it now. It’ll be fine. It’ll be great!” 

Even though Julie Powell’s mother, and even Julie herself, were very skeptical on the idea of Julie starting such a big project, Julie stuck through with it until the very end. And look at where Julie is now! She has two published novels, one which the new movie Julie & Julia is partly based on. And you know what else? Julie found her passion. And at the end of the day, don’t we all want that?  

So, after doing some research, I finally found a copy of the same poem (more or less) on-line, at http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/00-2/lp2256.shtml :

This is
Christmas.
End a quarrel.
Seek out a forgotten
friend. Dismiss suspicion,
and replace it with trust . . .
Write a love letter. Share some
treasure. Give a soft answer. En-
courage youth Manifest your loyalty in
word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the
time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen.
Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand.
Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think
first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle.
Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence.
Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your
gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart
of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the Earth.
Speak your love.
Speak it again.
Speak it still
once
again.

So, to break it down, I, Iryna of the blog What I Didn’t Know, commit to completing and documenting all thirty-three goals listed above, all before midnight on December 24th, 2010.

(I feel like I’m reciting some sacred oath that in the future will come back to haunt me.)

(I also feel find of weird talking to myself in all of these little brackets.)

(Okay – I’m stopping now.)

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