Blog Prompt 3
Since it is too difficult for me to write about real people in my life on this blog I will have to make some things up in order to accomplish one of my goals of writing based on all the prompts from the book Branches by Nancy Beckett. Or maybe not? After all, there are 70 prompts. I hope I have a good imagination.....
Prompt 3:
“Describe a friend in the following dimensions: physical – head and body, the way they moved and breathed. Quote a favorite pet expression, or the way they acted in front of superiors. Describe the thing they loved but had trouble acquiring and a stray goal that eluded them. Finally, discuss an outstanding quality they possessed and how you felt about it. By the way, what did their parents do for a living?"
With arms always in motion to match the movement of her words, Andrea often appeared to be conducting an invisible orchestra. Her thick dark hair hung like a helmet around her round face and she managed to find a pair of rectangular black glasses to provide a strong contrast to the rest of her. For poor Andrea was round from the face on down. She could have been drawn using only circles for head, torso, and all four appendages. Her favorite saying was “alls well that ends well.” Unfortunately some things never ended for Andrea. She was 43 and still pursuing her bachelor’s degree one class at a time. The adventure started immediately after High School, when she went away to live on Campus at Northern University in DeKalb, Illinois. She only lasted one semester there and came home to a set of loving parents who expected little from her in return for their constant support. They spoiled her with their endless patience and low expectations. After all, she was so round. They were afraid if they pressured her in any way she might burst. So Andrea took a job as a waitress in a local Pizza Joint. She worked mostly at nights and struggled looking at a variety of different trade schools during the day. Should she be an X Ray Technician, a dog groomer, a court reporter, a paralegal, a phlebotomist? The choices were endless really. Her parents were happy in their vocations. Her father was a shoe maker and her mother worked as a beautician. They each had a very distinct odor about them when they would come home at night. Andrea wanted a job that would not make her smell. That was her top priority. She would try on different courses at these specialty schools like other kids tried on jeans.
But after a few years, when nothing fit, Andrea could feel her friends passing her by as they graduated from college, got married or went into the family business. So it was back to the drawing board, but instead of looking for a “trade” Andrea enlisted at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She decided to try every single different type of class she could find from chemistry to architecture and from Poetry to Russian as a foreign language. Andrea was determined to finer her passion, her true calling which would then result in a fulfilling career. By time she was 43, she had enough credits for about 4 majors but unfortunately it was never the right combination to get a specific degree. So she continued to waitress. Round bunions grew on her feet and eventually she had to wear sandals all year long even in the winter. But Andrea was determined and she never saw life as a means to an end because she could never see the end, which is why I always thought it was strange that her favorite saying was “alls well that ends well.” So what did she end up getting her Degree in? Education, of course!
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