The 20something's Tale

A friend has recently brought it to my attention that I refer to people in my life (family, friends, friends of friends or strangers) as "life characters" with great frequency. While I would love to attribute this to the amount of pleasure reading I have been able to do this summer, I am not sure that is actually the case. Honestly, I cannot recall a moment in which I did not feel I was writing my own epic stories with the people I see, hear, or think about on a daily basis. Yes, stories of epic proportion. Stories with multiple authors, characters who have survived from book one to book...let's call it eight, and characters who have merely made appearances but have been written out for both simplistic and wild reasons.

This story I seem to be writing right now, book number eight, is seeming to have some of the most complex and fascinating characters I have had the pleasure of writing in. I like to think of this as "The 20something's Tale" because the title "A World of Laughter, Discovery, Heartbreak, Confusion, Success, Defeat, Stress, Independence and Happiness" was FAR too simple. The life characters that help me understand who I am as a leading lady in my own story can always be described so intricately in my mind. I often feel as though my character list is one of a kind, that no other 20something Tale could possibly find a way to intertwine the wonderfully encouraging yet confusing characters I am able to write about and live among.

Why am I sharing this? A loaded question, really. In all honesty I would love to challenge myself to put into words some of the life characters I am blessed to know deeply, casually, and pass by on a whim. From the fairytale childhood best friend to the man at the coffee shop with a curiosity regarding my time spent writing papers, everyone has changed me. Everyone has challenged me, encouraged me, infuriated me or comforted me...whether the knew it or not. As a character with an uncomfortably intricate core, I constantly analyze the characters in my story and try to figure out the how or the why. Maybe, just maybe, the written word can offer a bit more insight.

So where does that leave me? Honestly, with three paragraphs of explanation that could probably be translated into 4-6 simple sentences. This 20something Tale will highlight some of my life characters. Some big, some seemingly insignificant. Are there really insignificant characters? I am not entirely convinced that there are. I could easily begin by describing myself as a character but what is the fun in that? If you flip through the story this way, I believe you will discover more about me than if I attempted to untangle the life of an extremely introverted idealist who learned to the part of an extrovert all too well. That would be an exhausting character description to write.

We can start small.

"The Starbucks Lovers"
    A couple that I watched on multiple occasions during a two week span. Each day as I curled up in my favorite leather chair for a morning of research, writing, and Facebooking I saw these two at the table across from me enjoying what appeared to me as the best morning anyone could endure. Perched in the same positions each time, they shared a newspaper and a breakfast pasty while sipping mugs of black coffee. While one flipped through the business and sports sections, the other explored entertainment and comics. I never saw them exchange words, just glances here and there that screamed love and passion ever so silently. I wanted to be them. I wanted to have what they seemed to have and to love the way they seemed to love. A love so simple yet full of complexity, history, and inevitably hardship.
     I never spoke to either of them but caught myself smiling and feeling as though the future did not have to look so terrifyingly complicated all the time. I smiled because though they had no idea of my existence, I knew of theirs and it had opened a realm of new possibilities. As characters in my story they seem to only have their own chapter but the essence of who they are will be woven into any other tale involving simplicity, love, or the beauty of silence.

                                                               Yes, this is actually them.