#YourTurnChallenge - Day 7 - Grow Your Blog

  

What to do When it's Your Turn is a book by Seth Godin.  It's been morphed into a writing challenge and you can click the book cover up there to find more information.

~~~oOo~~~

Day 7:  What are you taking with you from this Challenge?

During the Your Turn Challenge this past week, I have concentrated more than I ever have (I think) on writing something that readers with either enjoy or at least be able to take something away with them.

This is also going to be my post for the "Grow Your Blog" link up, hosted by Vicki at the 2 Bags Full blog.  (I first saw the link-up 2 years ago, on the day they all posted.  I tried to keep a look out for it in 2014, but did not sign up in time.  I JUMPED on it this year!  BOO-YEAH!

So, #YourTurnChallenge-rs, meet the GrowYourBlog-gers (and vice versa)!

At YTC, scads of writer-types pledged to post a blog entry once a day during the challenge.  Today is the last day.  

At GYB, scads of blogger-types have their virtual autograph books out, looking to make new blogger friends.

Since the beginning of 2014, I have been more of a book blogger than anything, all grown out of a years-long reading for pleasure starve-a-thon that lasted from college through my youngest child reaching tween-age.

I have learned many things in the past year.  I have been entertained beyond belief.  I have experienced a full range of emotions.  And, I have traveled around the world, all in the pages of books. It's been a heck of a ride and I'm always looking for more fellow, make that sister-and-brother co-travelers!

#YourTurnChallenge - Day 6 - Walk a Mile in Somebody's Shoes

What to do When it's Your Turn is a book by Seth Godin.  It's been morphed into a writing challenge and you can click the book cover up there to find more information.

~~~oOo~~~

Day 6:  Tell us about a time when you surprised yourself.

That would be the time I did a walk-a-thon (before they shortened them in general).  It was in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The walk-a-thon started at Sugarhouse Park, went through Research Park (a business-type park), around the University of Utah, through the mouth City Creek Canyon, past the State Capitol, Trolley Square, Liberty Park and back to Sugarhouse.  The total distance was 30 km (18 miles).

I had never walked so far in my life, but had a little of the swagger of youth left and thought it would be no problem.  Wow.  I was SO wrong!

At a little way station in the Avenues, I changed my socks.  That helped.  I also put bandaids over my several blisters, and ate an orange.  I love the aroma that bites the air when you peel a ripe, juicy orange.

One thing that helped was having a portable tape player with earphones, which I had bought especially for the walk-a-thon.  I think I had one tape - Introducing the Hard Line According to Terence Trent D'Arby.  I bought that tape because of the song they used on the show 21 Jump Street (the tv series, not the movie).

I changed my socks again at Liberty Park.  It was amazing how (relatively?) better I felt with a clean, dry pair of socks.  By the time I climbed the last hill back to SugarHouse Park, I was sliding my feet along the ground.  But I felt like a mongoose holding onto a snake.  I would be ok if I just kept held on.  If I let go (stopped putting one foot in front of the other) I would have been a goner.

Later that night, I went to a bbq/party for the department I worked for at a local bank.  One of our staff was moving to Hawaii with her family.  At the end of the evening as I was preparing to leave, I had to walk through a hallway from the kitchen of the house towards the front door.  Probably half a dozen people were sitting staggered on opposite sides of the hall with their legs out in front of them.  I had to ask my co-workers and their family members to move their legs because I was physically unable to lift my legs the 4-6" necessary to climb over them!

But I finished the walk-a-thon and survived!  That was a huge surprise to me, because on the last couple of miles I thought many times of the van that would circle around and pick up people who couldn't take another step.

This experience taught me the value of dedication to a task.  And that lesson would stand me in good stead years later when I worked a Christmas season at an Amazon warehouse in Lexington, Kentucky.  But that's another story altogether.

#YourTurnChallenge - Day 5 - Getting Unstuck

What to do When it's Your Turn is a book by Seth Godin.  It's been morphed into a writing challenge and you can click the book cover up there to find more information.

~~~oOo~~~

Day 5:  What advice would you give for getting unstuck?

I must say I am a Mistress of Breaking Big Plans Down Into Ridiculously Small Steps.  Probably more than half the time I feel completely overwhelmed by the 'big picture' - so much so that even if it is something that needs to happen, I have a lot of trouble actually starting, figuring if I'm going to fail anyway, I might as well save the time and effort.  (I know.  But I told you about my depression on Day 1 of the challenge.)

So, what do I mean by ridiculously small steps?

Say we're talking about getting out of bed and starting my day.  Some people can jump up and be about their business in fairly short order.  Once in a while that is even true for me...but not always.

Some days it goes like this:

1) Wake up.  (This one doesn't take a lot of effort on my part and actually happens whether I want it to or not.)
2) Think about getting out of bed.
3) Decide to stretch some before I do, because I read somewhere that that is a good thing.
4) Actually stretch.
5)  Reach down to pull aside the covers.
6)  Move my legs off the edge of the bed.
7)  Use principles of gravity and momentum to allow dropping my legs to the floor to cause me to sit up.
8)  Think about laying back down before that wonderful lazy sleepy feeling completely disappears.
9)  Swear at the dogs who are scratching at the side door to be let out.
10)  Actually stand up.

Ok, yes, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek.  But if I can break a daunting process down into small enough steps, I can often get enough of these micro-steps under my belt to feel like I have a chance at coloring in all the numbers on the big picture.

#YourTurnChallenge - Day 4 - A Very Important Skill

What to do When it's Your Turn is a book by Seth Godin.  It's been morphed into a writing challenge and you can click the book cover up there to find more information.

~~~oOo~~~

Day 4:  Teach us something that you do well.

~~~oOo~~~

I like to listen.  Most of us would like more time, so here's the ultra-short version of the lesson:

1.  Open your ears.

2.  Zip your lips.

And here's the slightly-less-short version:

To listen is to hear + to understand.  We can go to a talk given in a foreign language and hear a lot.  But unless we know the language, we won't really be able to understand what the speaker is trying to say, so we cannot listen effectively.

But this is the internet.  Unless we listen to or produce podcasts or videos, to what do we have to listen?

We 'listen' to other bloggers by visiting and entering into a conversation with them, even if it is just by leaving a relevant comment on their post.  This shows that you read the post and you thought about it; in other words, you listened.

Your Turn Challenge - Day 2 - Something That's Important

What to do When it's Your Turn is a book by Seth Godin.  It's been morphed into a writing challenge and you can click the book cover up there to find more information.

~~~oOo~~~

Day 2:  Tell us about something that's important to you.

Few things get me as fired up as the treatment of and discrimination against people with mental illnesses.  A majority of people will say, "That woman is autistic," or "That man is schizophrenic," as if the person is their illness.  He is not bi-polar; he is a person with bi-polar disorder (or manic depression).  You wouldn't say someone is cancer.

There is also a stigma attached to having a mental illness, that is not present with a physical ailment.  Think of when you hear of someone being referred to a 'mental hospital'.  We pigeon-hole that person as 'crazy' and write them off.  We wonder what happened to make so-and-so from that terrible story on the news do such a thing.  But we don't ask what makes someone lash out when their blood sugar is low.  Are we really afraid that being near someone with a mental illness opens us to the possibility of physical harm, more than just walking down the street?

I've been on both sides of the equation.  Having suffered from depression since I was a teen, I have taken various medications for more than a decade.  My mother could not accept it, but finally sent me to a LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) to 'find out what was wrong with me', then called the woman up and insisted she be told what we discussed during our sessions.

After having two children, I went to an employment counselor and expressed the troubles I had due to depression.  Her response was that I should just, "stop it and pull myself up by my own bootstraps"!  (If it were only that easy.)  I've never heard someone with a chronic physical condition to "just get over it and get back to work."

And while advancements have been made in the treatment of mental illnesses and mental retardation, there is still a long, long way to go.  I worked in a 'residential/teaching facility for adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities for four years.  I gained a second family (from my 'clients').  And it was the most fulfilling job I've ever had.  I was nervous about the administration 'finding out' that I was taking meds for depression -- until I found out that most of the staff was on anxiety meds.

There were enough rules (most often contradicting at least one other rule) that it was almost impossible to stay out of trouble.  There was a nagging feeling that the 'experts' were at least as interested in keeping their jobs, and making the right reports to the federal government as they were at actually improving the lives of their charges.  I went the rounds more than once with more than one of the various 'therapists'.

The funniest thing was when a supervisor came through and asked me what 'Pat's' level of supervision was (independent, field of vision, or arm's length).  I responded with "Well, I expect she's independent up in heaven as she died nearly two years ago."  (To be fair, he was new to the job, having been hired away from a local restaurant at the recommendation of his aunt, who worked in the offices.

I could go on.  (Just trust me on that one.)  But there is no easy answer.  I like to think I was a sensitive caring worker.  And a lightbulb moment came for me when I was giving one of the older residents (74 at the time) a bath one night.  My own mother was at a rehabilitation facility at the time (in another state).  I thought about how I would like her to be treated.

Maybe that's the key for all of us.

Your Turn Challenge - Day 1

What to do When it's Your Turn is a book by Seth Godin.  It's been morphed into a writing challenge and you can click the book cover up there to find more information.

~~~oOo~~~

Day 1:  Why are you doing the Your Turn Challenge?

Why am I doing this challenge?

One of the earliest messages I can remember from my childhood is that I was not good enough.  My brother had talent in playing the piano.  My parents encouraged him, even to the point that he majored in music in college.  I don't really envy his talent or success; I'm very proud of his accomplishments.  The problem came in that I was interested in acting on stage from the time I was in grade school, if not before.  My mother and father did not have the same interest in live theatre that they did in music.  So I was encouraged to follow more academic pursuits.  I played the piano too but not as good as my brother.

I remember being in Trigonometry in high school and struggling with the course.  For one test I had studied especially hard and got 97 out of 100.  I proudly showed the paper to my father; he asked me what had happened to the other 3 points. *sound of air escaping from a balloon*

When I started college I majored in Musical Theatre.  By that time, I was so introverted that I found it difficult to audition, which as you can imagine created something of a problem.  At the end of the year, all majors had to pass an audition.  I did not.  One professor went so far to write on my review sheet that I should find something else to do, as I had no future in theatre.

For the next 10 years I believed him.  I started majoring in business, which pleased my mother to no end.  (My father had passed shortly before I graduated from high school.)  But my heart was not in it.  I fizzled out in my 2nd year in college and had odd jobs for the next 10 years or so.  On three occasions, my maternal uncle visited us in Salt Lake City.  The first time, I was working at a pizza restaurant.  He said I could do better than that.  The next time he visited, I was working in a credit card processing center for a local bank.  He and my mother got the nickel tour.  He said I could do better than that.  The third time, I had transferred to the International Department of the same bank and handled letters of credit for incoming and outgoing trade shipments.  As he had been in banking before he 'retired' and became a consultant, I thought finally he would be pleased.  As they left, he asked me to come out into the foyer with them, and told me I could do better than that.

So I went back to college because there was no moving up in that department and a lateral move was not what I was looking for.  I got a Bachelor of Science in Finance, which magna cum laude honors.  (My mother told me to be sure to ALWAYS add that bit in.)  But, I also auditioned for "The Importance of Being Earnest" and got the part of Lady Bracknell.   For the next 5-6 years I did about 30 plays, mostly acting but also various tech positions, and one directing stint.

Then came the children.  (I'll add here that I love each of my three children more than I can express, and I wouldn't trade the family I've got now for all the professional success in the world.)

Anyway...since the youngest turns 12 in a couple of weeks, they can mostly take care of themselves now.  So, for a while I've kind of been at loose ends.  We homeschool, so that takes a lot of time, of course.

But, now I feel that as the rest of the family do not require so much of my attention (as they used to), that I am at loose ends.  I feel something is missing, and that somehow I am not at this point fulfilling my 'calling', or what I am meant to do with my life.

We live in a rural setting, and there are hardly any opportunities nearby to participate in regional theatre.  Through blogging (this blog was started in 2007) and writing book reviews over the past year, I have rekindled my interest in writing.

So, now it's my turn.  Watch out world, because here I come.