But I will be talking about how we came up with the name Ms. Direction and what it means.
Ms.Direction
My name is Andrea Tomkins, and I've set up this blog to help me hash out ideas for a book I'm working on.
Thank you for supporting me on my journey!
But I will be talking about how we came up with the name Ms. Direction and what it means.
I have a good idea of where this is going now. That's good.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "Because it could be you, with your spin on it."
When we first started we had informally settled upon this project being written in the first person, that is, from her perspective (even though I was the person writing it). i.e. "I like pizza and long bike rides" as opposed to it being written in third person "She likes pizza and long bike rides."
Okay, pizza and bike rides are a lousy example, but you know what I'm getting at - whose perspective would be more compelling? Mine as an observer, or hers, coming from inside her own head?
I had already settled upon writing it from her point of view and her question made me less sure of myself at first.
It will take a lot more work, but think it should be her words, her voice. For some reason I have it in my head that this could be a kind of diarized (is that even a word?) kind of memoir. And a diary can only be written by the person whose emotions and life is invested in it.
It is fascinating how relatively simple childhood events can be so incredibly formative:
"I remember my mom’s friend Shirley. I can’t remember her last name. She lived across the street. That woman had an incredible influence on me. She taught me how to swim. I was really young, under seven. Her daughter was named Drew. Maybe I was five or six. She had three or four kids and she used to take us all to the community pool in the summertime. Back in those days we just jumped in and started to swim. She gave me a little bit of guidance here and a little bit of guidance there ... but she gave me an incredibly powerful experience. My mom doesn’t know how to swim and is afraid of the water. Had it not been for Shirley I never would have learned how to swim. .... I remember the day. I remember the situation. I remember her telling me I looked like a little fish. I remember all of that, clear as day.
It was a powerful feeling... one of my earliest memories of being empowered, she gave me the responsibility and accountability of learning how to do something. And I felt incredibly powerful."
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