Another old 300 Words from class...

Goodbye        

            There is one thing she has to say today and she has never wanted to say anything less than she wants to say this. Her head feels blissfully content resting against his chest. Her arms embrace him loosely as he holds on tight enough for the both of them. The warm damp air sends quick gusts of wind that momentarily cools them and causes the hem of her blue dress to dance.  As she closes her eyes and inhales his familiar scent one of  the tears she had been holding in for so long , seeps out and lands on his deep blue uniform.

            She was a sophomore in high school and she was in love much earlier than she had expected to be. They were serious and things were good, but as his graduation date grew closer so did the questions about next year. He considered a college a few states away and though she was mature for her age, this was a hard concept to grasp. However, she left every decision up to him and asked him not to consider her in his  initial deliberations. As hard as a long distance high school/college relationship sounded, she had no idea what he chose would be the most difficult situation she would ever be placed in.

            After their short summer of adventures and love ended he set off for boot camp. They hadn’t spend more than a weekend apart and there he went for three torturous months with no contact. With only a brief reunion at home he was gone again for more training. With each send-off more and more difficult she was growing weary of her new responsibility feeling far too young to be going through these sorts of things.  However, these practices gave her no assistance in her upcoming goodbye.

            She avoids words as she plays with one of his gold buttons and listens to him chat with his mother and younger sister.  The bus slowly fills up and the crowd begins to dwindle. She doesn’t let go of him. The wind blows sending the palm trees swirling in the heat and gives him some sort of signal because he then whispers, “it’s time.” She stands back and dusts off her blue dress as she watches the tears and hugs flow between a mother, son, and sister. Then he steadily walks towards her she gets anxious, she doesn’t know what to say. She has no idea what to say knowing this could be the last time she sees him. She has no words when he takes her into that perfect embrace and kisses her forehead. He is waiting. She needs to say something.  She isn’t ready. He says, “I love you.”

            She gives her only feasible reply, “I’m not ready.” 

            “Me either,” he answers.

300 Words: Confusion

Here is one of my old pieces. The topic was confusion...

Good Morning

How did she know she was alive and not dead? Her peacefully closed eyes began to tense up into a squint before she even opened and exposed them to the light. Her entire head felt engorged and empty at the same time, only a severe burning ache bounced around in her vacant skull. The sting progressively gained intensity as it sharpened and dulled to the beat of her pulsing temples. She revisited the notion that she was dead, then thought to herself that death had to be less painful than this. Again, she thought? Why?

She gently kicked off her covers, this was it. She had been here before, in this same situation. Enjoying the last horizontal moment she took a deep breath and hoped for the best. She knew that sitting up would signal one of two possible realities. She could either recover and move on, leave the aches and pains behind in her sheets. Or it could worsen and emboss her misery into what would be a long and torturous day.

She slowly sat up and the throbbing in her head intensified even more and her vision blurred. She grew dizzy and her body swayed in a small circular motion. Damn, she thought, here we go again. Her stomach growled so loud she wanted to shield her ears from the blast. It was empty. But she wondered how that was possible when she could simultaneously feel something gathering at the top of her throat. She avoided progressing to a fully vertical status for as long as she could until a wave of further punishment traveled through her body reminding her of the self induced hell she had put herself in once again. As she ran shaking to the bathroom one thought came to her mind; why? Again? Why?

300 Words...

So a couple of years ago I took a Creative Nonfiction Writing class. It turned being one of my favorite classes of all time. The teacher was so inspiring and, well, creative (her name was even Merry, common, that screams creativity.) Anyways, she would give us weekly assignments where she would give us a topic like, fear, anger, surprise, etc. and then we would have to write 300 words on it. Sounds easy right? Wrong, when she said 300 words, she meant 300. Not at least 300, we had to write exactly 300 words. No more, no less. Its much harder than you would think. To squeeze it all it or at times, stretch it all out. To make cuts from those precious sentences if you ran too long was sometimes painful. But it did make you really take a close look at your writing. It made you realize what you loved and needed and what you could afford to let go off.

Its such a great exercise that I have decided to start it up again! I will be posting some of my old pieces that I really loved and some new ones. Id love help with topics too! And if anyone would like to join, we could make it a weekly thing, maybe even work on the same topic if we'd like. I think writing with other people helps push you and also inspire! I am very excited about getting back into some structured writing!

Let me know if you would like to join me in writing 300 WORDS!