Let it be known: I have driven my children BY MY SELF to Florida to see their grandma (I’ll drive them home again in a few days, God willing). It’s the first time I’ve driven such a stint; I feel more than a little emboldened. Also sunburned. I feel that. In fact I’m lobster-red, a cliché. In the flurry of packing for the trip, I neglected to bring the sunblock. An afternoon of playing the pool with M and T, and I’m thinking that maybe these AR drugs have another side effect: sun sensitivity. Live and learn.
But back to the trip . . . or rather what proceeded the trip by a few hours.
The day before departure, I paid a guest author visit to Trinity High School in River Forest, IL.
Writers of Trinity unite!
I’ve never spent time in an all girls school before, and I believe I am a convert. These young women had things to say and ask about reading and writing and life, and as sure as I’m sitting hear by this little Florida pond, watching the languid white birds across the way, they’ve got the potential to make a difference in this world in their own various and distinctive ways.
I loved their questions, both general and specific. One interesting springboard for discussion: “Why don’t you write happy endings?” (Many of the girls had actually read my books. I wanted to bow before them for their graciousness in doing so. I may have actually salaamed. I know I thanked them.)
We talked about happy endings, and what constitutes the definition. Definitions, more to the point. I let on that I kind of thought I had written a happy ending (my central character changed and grew, and that for me signifies happiness). And a few girls allowed that okay, maybe not Happy with a capital H, but Satisfying. That’s an ending, too.
Satisfying is my new favorite word.
Thank you, young women of Trinity River Forest! Go Blazers!
