OOPS! Have you ever been so damn wrapped up in a project you forget what day it is? Yeah. That's me. *hangs head in shame* But, it's still vaguely morningish, right?
Well, with all of our talk about being Thankful here on the Oasis, it got me thinking about the things we want so badly, some of those things we pined for, prayed for and for whatever divine reason, never received. We might have cried, wrung our hands or just wondered why things didn't go as we so desperately wanted.
Well, I think Garth says it best.
Jessie said:
Something I DIDN"T get that I'm grateful for is a husband at too early of an age (for me). Like the YAs we write about, I was pretty convinced I knew everything, felt love as intensely as any adult, and was way more mature than I actually was. My first and only boyfriend at the time proposed when I was 18 (yes, the same one who cheated on my with 7 different people) and I accepted. After a summer abroad in Greece, I came back and broke it off. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do - and the best. I never would have met my soul mate, and actual husband, if I'd gotten what I thought I wanted more than anything for the four years leading up to our breakup.
Nikki said:
There are several things I’m thankful for never having gotten – an incurable disease, a horrible upbringing, miserable kids. And there are several things I wanted and didn’t get, but I’m not thankful for it! Getting into Princeton, becoming an astronaut, having a third daughter (just kidding, I love my son). It’s much tougher to come up with something I wanted and didn’t get, but am thankful for not having received it. I guess I’ll go with a total adult answer and say I’m ultimately glad that everything wasn’t handed to me when I was a teenager. I may have wanted the best clothes, a nicer car, but never got them. I learned the value of money, of saving, of waiting to buy something until you could pay for it ... And ultimately really making sure it was something you wanted in the first place!
Sheri said:
As heartbroken as I was at age seventeen when life kicked me in the face and took my dream of dancing on Broadway away, I'm thankful for it. That disappointment taught me that I could express myself creatively through more ways than just dance. I could write. Although I put it off for years to take care of others, I'm now dancing with my fingertips and still feeling the world. Without that unanswered prayer, I'd never have returned home, met a great guy--former rebel from high school who I'd never have dated back then--married him, and had four amazing children with him.
Oh, and I'm thankful that my prayer to turn into a boy never happened. Hee...I was a late bloomer, and in junior high that was awful. *grins* My dad was also an ice hockey and baseball coach. He was always busy with the boys, never having time for me. But we have the best relationship now...and I'm still a girl. Go figure.
Jessica's email either hates me, or the girl just missed the message when I sent it. *sigh*
ME? I'm going to put this in YA literature industry terms... I'm thankful I never places my first story, DRENCHED, because it prompted me to write more, and write better. I wouldn't have made the connections I did, and wouldn't be writing the kinds of stories I am now. In NOT getting what I wanted, I got something better.
What about you Oasis Seekers? Ever wanted something so desperately, never reviewed it and found you were better for it?
I'm also thankful I didn't marry young, though for the longest time I felt I had to apologize everywhere I went for being a "late bloomer." I wouldn't have done my masters degree, published a literary magazine or done much of anything with writing if I'd married one of my college boyfriends. None of them got me the way my hubby does.
ReplyDeleteI'm thankful the boyfriend I had at 19 didn't propose right then like I desperately wished he would have. We're married now, but had he jumped the gun and proposed before he did (7 years later), I know for SURE we would have divorced.
ReplyDeleteI'm also thankful my first book, IMPURE, didn't sell. I loved parts of it and hated others, but had it sold, my author brand would have been VERY DIFFERENT than what it's turning out to be. I also would have never found my new agent, who inspires me more than I ever thought possible.
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