I'm about to turn 41
So that puts me in the not young adult age group doesn't it? Unless you talk to my Mom she often says to me well you're still young and you can do those things. The thing we were discussing the last time it came up was my bright robin's egg blue nail polish, which I LOVE, by the way. Recently I added bright orange to my collection and today I have both colors on together. Loving that too in case you were wondering. I am happier and more content in my forties then I was certainly at twenty, or even in my thirties. At this age you still want people to like you, sure but if they don't and you are doing the best you can to be the best you you can, then its really about them.
Which brings me to what I've been up to since I haven't updated in a little less then a year. I started college. I'm a Lit major with my eye on the prize of special education masters degree down the road. I've been still working with the kids everyday and taking care of Nikki who is still going strong. I don't have a lot of time for pleasure reading. Most of my free time, is spent with my nose in a text book or examining the insides of my eyelids. But as a lit major I've seen something making the rounds lately that has pulled me out of blogging semi retirement. Let's talk about pleasure reading for a minute. I love to read, due to the nature of my disability I learned to read very early since I couldn't do some of the more active things kids my age were doing. My parents tell stories of a book budget when there wasn't much money for that, because we didn't live near a library. I was that kid. Recently making the rounds on the internet are several articles stating that adults, that would be I guess anyone over the age of twenty one, should be ashamed to be reading some of the young adult fiction that has come out in recent years. Think Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, and most recently to my knowledge, The Fault in Our Stars. Most of the articles I have seen seem to imply that by reading these books anyone over the age of preteen to twenty something, is lacking in social skills, maturity, higher order thinking, and any number of thinly veiled insults. I've seen way too many facebook walls shaming people for choosing to read anything on that list and some other books I haven't read. There was a list, dear friends, as to what is "acceptable adult" reading. I have read all of the books on my list and some on the acceptable list as well. One thing I think that is lacking in the articles I've read is an understanding that people have different life experience that they bring to reading a particular book. There is an overstated generalization about people outside the intended age group of this type of story being stunted in emotional growth at fourteen.
So let me give you the real scoop as I see it. The thing most of these books have in common is oppression. Harry had the worst family ever known to man. They locked him in a closet, told him was weird and wrong and destined to be nothing, The Hunger Games reminds me a little of either slavery or the civil rights movement. Why? Because there is an entire segment of the population of a society being told they are only good enough to be of service to the people in power. People who got their power by holding others down. People who feel entitled to something simply because they were born into a particular situation which they deem as more worthy then those they control. The Fault in Our stars is about living life, a meaningful life with disability, yes it's teen love angst ridden, but its not about that, and its not inspiration porn either. It's about coming to terms with the hand you have been dealt and getting on with the business of living life. What none of these article writers or sadly some personal friends seem to understand is they cannot possibly grasp all or any of the reasons someone might be drawn a book For me, I get oppression, I get being told you are weird and strange and don't matter. I certainly understand living with a body that can and often does let you down. I understand being told what you should do and where you should be because someone thinks disability makes one less worthy of a decent and productive life. So I like stories that I can relate to, I don't relate to them on a teen level. I relate to them because I understand the struggle. I understand the pain, the fear, and the loneliness that comes with never feeling like you fit in. I have lived that stomach turning jolt that comes when you meet somebody and know they will be shocked by you and expect you to inspire them by breathing without help. I do not believe this makes me immature. I do think that the people writing and agreeing with these articles haven't ever felt different then the norm. Please understand and take to heart not everyone is blessed with this experience. Recently one of my professors posed this question to me on a class discussion board, given the topic we were discussing that day. She asked didn't I think that society was embracing difference and seeing people for who they are? She could not understand how I could feel as though it wasn't that way. After I stopped laughing I told her that while it is better, I don't think there will ever be a day when being different doesn't make a person the object of ridicule. Is it better for me yeah... but I'm not ten or fifteen or twenty-five , trying to understand why who I am isn't good enough ANYMORE. Because I know now I am okay but I'm almost 41 years old. I needed that message a lot younger then I got it.
PS I have no reasons for twilight it was just a guilty pleasure ;-)
Which brings me to what I've been up to since I haven't updated in a little less then a year. I started college. I'm a Lit major with my eye on the prize of special education masters degree down the road. I've been still working with the kids everyday and taking care of Nikki who is still going strong. I don't have a lot of time for pleasure reading. Most of my free time, is spent with my nose in a text book or examining the insides of my eyelids. But as a lit major I've seen something making the rounds lately that has pulled me out of blogging semi retirement. Let's talk about pleasure reading for a minute. I love to read, due to the nature of my disability I learned to read very early since I couldn't do some of the more active things kids my age were doing. My parents tell stories of a book budget when there wasn't much money for that, because we didn't live near a library. I was that kid. Recently making the rounds on the internet are several articles stating that adults, that would be I guess anyone over the age of twenty one, should be ashamed to be reading some of the young adult fiction that has come out in recent years. Think Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, and most recently to my knowledge, The Fault in Our Stars. Most of the articles I have seen seem to imply that by reading these books anyone over the age of preteen to twenty something, is lacking in social skills, maturity, higher order thinking, and any number of thinly veiled insults. I've seen way too many facebook walls shaming people for choosing to read anything on that list and some other books I haven't read. There was a list, dear friends, as to what is "acceptable adult" reading. I have read all of the books on my list and some on the acceptable list as well. One thing I think that is lacking in the articles I've read is an understanding that people have different life experience that they bring to reading a particular book. There is an overstated generalization about people outside the intended age group of this type of story being stunted in emotional growth at fourteen.
So let me give you the real scoop as I see it. The thing most of these books have in common is oppression. Harry had the worst family ever known to man. They locked him in a closet, told him was weird and wrong and destined to be nothing, The Hunger Games reminds me a little of either slavery or the civil rights movement. Why? Because there is an entire segment of the population of a society being told they are only good enough to be of service to the people in power. People who got their power by holding others down. People who feel entitled to something simply because they were born into a particular situation which they deem as more worthy then those they control. The Fault in Our stars is about living life, a meaningful life with disability, yes it's teen love angst ridden, but its not about that, and its not inspiration porn either. It's about coming to terms with the hand you have been dealt and getting on with the business of living life. What none of these article writers or sadly some personal friends seem to understand is they cannot possibly grasp all or any of the reasons someone might be drawn a book For me, I get oppression, I get being told you are weird and strange and don't matter. I certainly understand living with a body that can and often does let you down. I understand being told what you should do and where you should be because someone thinks disability makes one less worthy of a decent and productive life. So I like stories that I can relate to, I don't relate to them on a teen level. I relate to them because I understand the struggle. I understand the pain, the fear, and the loneliness that comes with never feeling like you fit in. I have lived that stomach turning jolt that comes when you meet somebody and know they will be shocked by you and expect you to inspire them by breathing without help. I do not believe this makes me immature. I do think that the people writing and agreeing with these articles haven't ever felt different then the norm. Please understand and take to heart not everyone is blessed with this experience. Recently one of my professors posed this question to me on a class discussion board, given the topic we were discussing that day. She asked didn't I think that society was embracing difference and seeing people for who they are? She could not understand how I could feel as though it wasn't that way. After I stopped laughing I told her that while it is better, I don't think there will ever be a day when being different doesn't make a person the object of ridicule. Is it better for me yeah... but I'm not ten or fifteen or twenty-five , trying to understand why who I am isn't good enough ANYMORE. Because I know now I am okay but I'm almost 41 years old. I needed that message a lot younger then I got it.
PS I have no reasons for twilight it was just a guilty pleasure ;-)