Good fiction is always relevant

Here in the middle of exams week, I find myself with more free time to read. This morning, I read the end of Helen Schulman’s novel This Beautiful Life, a heartbreaking story of that fragility that defines even families that appear stable. Set in 2003, telling the tale of a high school boy who makes a bad choice by forwarding an inappropriate video of a classmate, the timeliness of her story could not be truer. Just yesterday, a man named Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail for spying on his gay roommate with a webcam at Rutgers in 2010. I didn’t follow the story closely the whole way through, so there are certainly intricacies to the case that I don’t understand.

His jail sentence will be over in a month, but his record will stay with him forever. Even if he hadn’t been convicted, he’ll always be “that guy that used the webcam to spy on his roommate.” In the story, Jake, the afflicted adolescent, is remorseful to the point where he resorts to painkillers to get some respite. Dharun allegedly has not ever offered an apology to the court or the family of his victim. While the intent of their offenses (Jake’s fictional and Dharun’s actual) differs greatly, it makes me think hard about everything that happens on my computer. Should I even be putting these thoughts out in public?

Bringing Up Bébé // This Beautiful Life

Well! I'm not great with extended periods of free time. I love a little time to relax at the end of the day as much as the next person, but really not having any work to do messes with my brain.

Since I finished writing exams a week ago, I have had no work to do outside of my school hours. It's driving me crazy! It's made me realize that I need hobbies (outside of thinking about education).

I headed to the library and picked up two new books: Bringing Up Bébé and This Beautiful Life. While I picked up BUB first (it's the story of an American woman raising children in France), I have gotten more into This Beautiful Life. It's by Helen Schulman, author of A Day at the Beach, which I had to read for an American Lit class at Notre Dame. I remembered liking that story, so I'm giving fiction another shot.

So far, all I've realized is that I'm (thankfully) different than I was four years ago. I know hope I'll have grown in another four, because the thought of remaning stagnant and reading a story with the same set of eyes is terribly frightening. And that family is fragile. Hold on tight to the ones you love.

iPosting

May 14

Steve Jobs is done. That was a long book. I’m glad I read it.

Coincidentally, so is my job search. Today I accepted an offer to teach 6^th grade math. I am so excited to be back in a middle school, back in a math classroom, and heading back to Boston! I’m feeling incredibly blessed!

May 12, 2012

Currently on a plane: Atlanta to Boston

As such, I don’t remember when I last wrote or where I was in my reading adventure. What I do know is that the last few weeks of my life have been delightfully exhausting and busy. I am traveling north for an interview. I’m incredibly nervous, because I really want this job but am worried that my experiences and lack of ambition during the last two years will work against me.

Since I’m heading straight from the school back to the airport on Monday, I’ve tried to pack lightly. This means I didn’t bring Steve Jobs with me, since a 600 page hardcover book isn’t the most discrete. I also chose to leave my Kindle at home, since I wasn’t in the mood for a classic nor to spend money on a new title.

Instead, I borrowed a book from Brendan called Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity by James C. Cobb. While my early morning flight only allowed me to read about 30 pages, I find myself enthralled by the beginning of this history. It’s no secret that the most influential periods of my life have all taken place in different areas of the country: childhood in the Northeast, college in the Midwest, and the beginning of my adult life in the South. I never really took root in Louisiana, and I’m not sure why. I had plenty of time. It concerns me a bit since I was also eager to get out of the Northeast, since I wanted to get away from the constantly-working, no-time-to-say-hi attitude of city dwellers in that area of the country. Now we’re heading back. I’ll be a Massachusetts resident again in a mere month. I have 33 days to determine which pieces of my Southern identity I’ll retain and make part of my life once I arrive in the North. I love being able to say hello to people I come across while running or walking, and I enjoy sitting on my porch with a book and a drink at the end of the day (still Diet Coke – I never graduated to sweet tea). I like that people take time to live their lives and celebrate each day.

At the end of my Southern residency, I fear that I’m romanticizing the aspects of the life I’m about to leave and exaggerating my fears about moving back north. In any case, reading a “real” book has made me woefully aware of the limited vocabulary I’ve been using. Time to get back in academic shape, I think.

Reflections on Steve Jobs before this post becomes even longer:

I’ve been reading this book forever. It’s been slow for a few reasons: 1.) the beginning was boring. I wasn’t around in 1984 for the great new ads and first versions of the computers, so I wasn’t super interested. 2.) I’ve been applying for jobs/writing exams/hosting family and I just haven’t prioritized reading for fun.

I’ve been much more into the story since I hit the era of the iPod. I never reflected on the end-to-end user experience that Jobs so carefully crafted, but now I see how blindly I bought into all of the advertising. It really did make everything easy. I just opened up my iTunes to listen to some music. The last time I played a track on my computer was April 5^th. I’ve certainly listened since then, but I mostly just use my iPhone to play music. I can hook it up to speakers and it plays the same stuff.

Plus, it fits in my pocket. I can’t remember whether I wrote about this, so maybe I’ll delete this later…

I was reading a few weeks ago and hit the first mention of the iPod ads with silhouettes dancing on the screen. I remember seeing those and being enamored with the idea of an iPod. I had been given an mp3 player, but I wanted an iPod. They seemed so cool. I wanted to rewatch some of the ads and relive that feeling, so I grabbed Brendan’s iPad... to watch videos about an iPod. I instantly laughed out loud at the hold that these Apple products now have on my life! I didn’t turn on a computer because it would take too long. Ha! I guess I’m their ideal consumer. It’s kind of embarrassing.

I don’t know that I will buy another Mac, because I like Microsoft Office so much better on a PC, but I recently found out that they hold the same level of desirability for younger generations. While recently teaching a lesson on school supplies and colors to my 5^th grade French class, I told them “J’ai un ordinateur blanc” (I have a white computer) and about three kids instantly yelled out “YOU HAVE A MAC?” “SHE HAS A MAC” “DO YOU LOVE IT?!?”. Ignoring the statement their outbursts make about my classroom management skills, I thought it was funny that they knew what kind of computer I had just from the color, and wanted one as well.

Last two thoughts (I promise):

I opened and listened to the free Bob Dylan CD I got about three years ago for the first time last night. Steve Jobs loved Bob Dylan, and I found the CD in Brendan’s car, so we put it on. I actually kind of liked it. I always thought I hated Bob Dylan. Interesting….

B & I started bootcamp last Tuesday morning (May 1). It’s been a bit of a rough start… the week it started, Tim, Katie and Kevin were in for an awesome week of food, Jazz fest, and more food. This week, I took Wednesday off due to exhaustion, and then August (the trainer) was sick on Thursday and Friday… so I’ve only made it 4 times in the two weeks. I’m going to try to do some working out when I get home this afternoon so that I can still do pushups when I get to class on Tuesday morning.

Okay. Congratulations future self on re-reading this if you got this far.