Who ARE these people?
Yesterday
I stepped out of my comfort zone and attended my very first creative
writing workshop. This story is not so much about the workshop content,
but about events surrounding it.
A little background, because how I got there was a bit circuitous and adds to my overall wonderment of the story.
Through
a series of offhand remarks and following up on a "coincidental"
conversation with the owners of GPLDG, the company I work for, I am
taking a course in Web Design and Development at Phoenix College. It
happened very quickly: Conversation at the company Christmas party;
affirmation a week later that it wasn't just wine talking; a little
on-line research; voila! next thing I know I'm picking up a campus
parking sticker and having my student ID picture taken.
School
began on January 18. Two weeks into the course, I was passing through
the school website to get into my student email account. Before I
clicked off the home page something caught my eye. It was this:
New this Spring!
Weekly Creative Writing Workshop
Open to All Students
Thursdays 2:30-3:30pm (starting January 27)
Room ### in the English Department
Writers of all levels exchange feedback on each other's work.
Discuss various writing topics and work with creative writing prompts.
All
types of creative writing welcome: poetry, creative non-fiction, short
and flash fiction, novel excerpts, play and screenplay scenes.
What
to bring: Something to scribble with and something to scribble on. If
you would like to workshop a piece of writing, please bring about 5
copies.
Before
I even connected that the time was tailor made (my Web class ends at
2:15 on Thursday), and before I even noticed I had already missed the
first session, and before I had the chance to think about the fact that I
have nothing at all to workshop, I sent an email to Jacquie, the
contact listed in the ad. Within minutes I received a reply that I was
absolutely welcome to participate. I marveled at my own impetuousness.
I
planned to begin immediately, two days later, which would have been
only the second workshop session. Unfortunately, on that Thursday, for
the first time in months, I had a pressing task at work for which I had
to return right after my Web Design class ended. Normally I might have
taken that as an omen, but no, it was like I was being led to the
writing workshop by some unseen force, so before returning to work, I
stopped by to introduce myself to Jacquie and to obtain the weekly
writing prompt in order to experiment.
Several
days later, in a monthly group meeting with 5 good friends, when it was
my turn to talk I spoke about my going-back-to-school experiences with
the Design class and then brought up the happy little bonus of the
writing group, lamenting that I already had to miss the first one I was
supposed to attend. This is a group of very intuitive women, and what
three of them said next was something I hadn't even considered. They
all felt very strongly that the real reason I happened into going back
to school had way more to do with the workshop than the course I'm
taking. Additionally, a few days later, while recounting the workshop
story to my Mom, also an intuitive, and before I even got to the part
about what my friends said, she made the same observation! Well, OK
then. All my intuitives are on the same page!
Onward
to the next Thursday, the aforementioned yesterday. I finished
everything I needed to do at work before I left for my Web Design class.
When it ended I made my way down to the workshop space, which is a
conference room rather than a classroom, so the seating style was a
table in the middle of the room with chairs all around it. I was the
first one there but was soon joined by Jacquie, two women, one older and
one younger, and one older and two fairly young guys. One of the
younger guys sat next to me on my right and immediately turned to me and
said, "Hi, I'm Eric." I introduced myself and we shook hands.
The
workshop started with the writing prompt. We all spent about 20
minutes writing the first thing that came to us and then we all took
turns reading aloud what we had written. I was nervous because they
seemed way more experienced and writerly than me, but I took a deep
breath and shared. My piece was well received, a huge relief. We spent
the remainder of the hour "workshopping" pieces that several of them
had brought.
I
left feeling pretty jazzed. One reason was because I didn't make a fool
of myself and the other was because I was headed to see my FABulous
hair stylist, Miguel. It had been over 4 months since my last haircut
and this was only my second time visiting his salon since meeting him at
the Temple. He works in a really cool space called Trini, right next to
my favorite coffee shop, Lola, on Roosevelt.
I'll bet you're wondering if I'm just digressing here. No, I'm not!
So
I was at my way overdue hair appointment, seated comfortably in the
hair washing chair, Miguel administering a fantastic cranial massage,
when another stylist and client walked into the room. The client, a
young guy, sat down next to me on my right hand side. Out of the corner
of my eye, I see it is Eric, the guy I had just sat next to, and met
for the first time only about an hour before in the workshop. We were
both just completely amazed at the "coincidence." I mean really, Phoenix
is one big ass city, you know? And it's not like Trini and Phoenix
College are next door to each other.
As
Miguel led me to his chair to cut my hair, I explained how weird this
little synchronicity actually was. All of a sudden he said, " I had
something like that happen today too!" He woke up early that day, which
he said was very unusual for him. He prepared a bowl of cereal and
turned on the TV to watch the morning news, something else he said he
never does. He watched a report about people waiting in line overnight
to be first in line for the release of the new iPhone offered by
Verizon. The first person in line was being interviewed, a young woman
who had been there since 3:30am. She was wearing a hoody and shivering
from the cold, but quite excited, he said. Several hours later when
Miguel got to the salon, his first client of the day came in. She was
someone he was meeting for the first time. After the introduction was
made she excitedly showed him her new iPhone that she was able to obtain
that morning. And then she said, "I was even interviewed for the
news!" And then Miguel realized that she was the girl he'd seen on TV
because he, for some odd reason, couldn't sleep that morning.
After
my haircut, I went next door to Lola to wait for Pat who would be
joining me shortly after taking the light rail from work. Over coffee I
told her all about my exciting day, and in particular, about both my
and Miguel's odd synchronistic new person meetings. Pat listened
intently and then asked, "Who ARE these people?"
Good question.
