Post #21 – Women’s Memoirs, Writing Prompt – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Written by: Promptly Portland
In spite of the rain, there is much to love about Portland. While I’m adjusting to almost daily drizzle, I remind myself that there are still opportunities for biking. Portland is a city that’s friendly to people like me.
I think I became enamored when I got my first tricycle. Many years and many bicycles later, I still prefer a bike to other modes of transportation. Everyone I have met since I moved here has a bike and uses it to get around this great city, at least part of the time. For a while I thought I could bike to one of my community college teaching jobs. That was until I set out to try it. When I was about 3/4 of the way there, I realized I could make it, but I’d be too exhausted to teach. No matter, I still bike a great deal.
One evening when I was biking to pick up a pizza for dinner, I got thinking about the various types of biking paths I use and how I could think about my life in terms of these different trails. There certainly have been years when I seemed to be going in circles with no way out. If I were to write about this time in my life, I might call it: “My Life as Velodrome.” The best I could do was stay on the track and not fall off. I didn’t even try to get out in front. Just follow what others were doing.
Other times, I focus on a narrow trail, no wider than my bike tire. I can’t see far ahead and I don’t look around. I just try to make forward progress to my goals. During these times, I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot, yet focus is needed.
When there is a bigger event than your life — perhaps history — perhaps a job, perhaps someone else in your life, you may feel that you’re just going alongside that other circumstance. At least, I’ve felt that way. Some of my teaching experiences, especially when I was also a full-time graduate student, might be described this way. The outside events were so all consuming that it seemed as if I were being taken along the track. At that point, the wideness or narrowness of my personal path didn’t matter. I just kept moving forward.
Life also has its moments or times of pure joy. The path seems wide with just enough twists and turns to make it interesting. The scenery is close by and easy to appreciate. Good companionship is also a feature of those times.
Did this get you thinking about your own life?
500 Words (or More): Memoir Writing Prompt #8
1. Consider two different life journeys you have made. Perhaps one will be a time when you were on a narrow path, barely noticing the world around you. A second might be a time when your joy was abundant, the path was wide, and you were feeling excitement about you, your life, your surroundings.
2. Imagine you are living those two life journeys again, but this time you are biking through those experiences. What are your feelings? What do you see? What is the path like?
3. Now write 500 words (or more). In the pretend world of biking through segments of your life, you may gain perspective on those times. You may find this is a way to get past the No Entry signs that keep us from writing about our life journeys.
Until next time,
-Promptly Portland
