Freakin' Awesome

                 

                   ‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing’

     Writing is my favorite way to play.  I love creating strange worlds, living in different times and becoming unusual characters.  They aren't always having a good time but I get to invent ways for them to be victorious in the end.  When I've written a scene with true emotion, it feels like I've just invented the best game ever!

     Why is it then that I always put my writing last? Or I feel guilty when I put it first?

      I want more Freakin Awesome moments!

     

     Allow me to explain Freakin Awesome -

    Last summer I took my family to Seven Peaks, a huge water park  as part of our vacation.  Its water attractions are varied but Seven Peak’s claim to fame rests in its seven humongous water slides. (Only one of which I enjoy. The rest of my family, enjoys five of them with the remaining two being just too intense – water enemas and all.)

     At the end of our wet and splashy day, my son and I pulled plastic chairs over to the bottom of two of the water slides. We wanted to watch my husband and the rest of the kids go down the bumpy slides for the ‘last time’. With towels wrapped around us and the warm cement beneath our feet, we watched as the death slide enthusiasts came tearing down a slide, splashing water everywhere.  Each one having varied reactions to experience.  

     A person could elect to go down the side by himself on an inner tube or ride double with a buddy. The slide was almost a straight shot down from three stories high. Some people would scream, others would grip the inner tube, hanging on for dear life, while others still would laugh as water shot up their nose and in their eyes.

     All at once two blonde-headed boys came flying down the slide, water splashed up high on both sides. Once the tube came to a stop, the boy in front jumped up, threw his hands in the air and yelled “That was freakin awesome!” He turned to his companion and smiled as he tried to wipe the water from his eyes. The other boy nodded and laughed. They both agreed to ‘do it again’, grabbing the inner tube and waddling up towards the stairs as fast as they could. My son and I laughed at the first boy’s enthusiasm.  It seemed at little dramatic but authentic none the less.  I watched a few more people come down the slide and started to think.

     How many times had I stood up and yelled,  “that was freaking awesome!”?   I honestly couldn't remember the last time.  After talking to my husband, I decided I wanted to find more things that were ‘Freakin Awesome!’

     I found one last October.  I finished editing my book (adding critique partner’s suggestions and my additions only, not grammar or punctuation) and had it printed out. All 351 pages of it. I had it spiral bound with a clear plastic cover at a local print shop.   My book sat in the front seat with me as I headed home.  I started to giggle. I kept looking over at it and thought, I wrote that.       

     I.   Wrote.   That!        

     It was Freakin Awesome!!

   

     We have to find those type of things in life.  The type of hobbies or talents that give us so much joy we can't help but throw our arms in the air and yell with happiness. 

    Now the trick for me is to make writing a priority, so I can walk around like that soaking wet kid, wearing a big smile on my face and never growing up!

     What's your Freakin Awesome joy in life?