With a little elbow grease

Becoming the person you want to be with the things you want to have. Could it really be as easy as making clear what you want in life? I'll tell you what. I really believe it is as easy as admitting what you want and then doing some work to achieve it.

I wanted, since I was a senior, to intern at two.one.five magazine. I repeatedly applied and finally got it. After writing multiple times about what I wanted in a lover, I found one who is at least most of those things. When I was a junior or senior in high school, I pasted pictures on my agenda book of items that I wanted to own and the above Prada purse was one of them. Now, I finally worked to have enough money to buy myself one. I also decided I wanted my very own e-reader and mentioned it to Dad. He bought me a Kindle for Christmas.

With a little bit of elbow grease -- or the occasional green ink -- I tend to get what I want.

While I may not be able to fix my broken family, which is the one thing I can say without a doubt I never pictured for myself at 19, I can build the life I want, and get the things I want. While I realize that there shouldn't be much emphasis placed on material goods, it's fun to amass such pretty, fun objects.

I'm feeling pretty blessed, and it's not often that I've said that.

On women, superficiality and the new Prince Charming

A friend posted this question on Facebook: "Is it OK for a guy to be sensitive and caring for other people, or does that make him look like a sissy and a punk?" I was not the only one who responded to the question asked, but the dialogue quickly turned from the idea of the sensitive man to a derision of women as wholly superficial.

While I've always had a Twisted Sisterhood-type relationship with women, I don't think we're all that superficial and even if we are, it's not entirely our fault. When it comes to each other, yes, we're superficial, and, sure, we're a teensy bit superficial when it comes to guys, but I don't think it's because we're mean. We certainly don't realize that our "superficial" expectations or needs of men won't and can't be met; these preferences are bred in us from the time we are infants. Cinderella marries the handsome and perfect prince, so we're convinced from a young age that we must and will find our own Prince Charming.

It's a plight we're not exactly the creator of. The images we have of the perfect man to be with come from the media, and as much as it disgusts me, the media is largely controlled by men like Rupert Murdoch who have their own biases and, on some level, will do just about anything to sell their product. It began, I believe, when someone recognized that giving women a book or movie where the female protagonist ends up living the perfect life with the perfect man on her arm would sell a lot of those books or movies. Women are still, despite being 90 years removed from the struggle for suffrage, fighting tooth-and-nail for everything they want and it's in our nature to want everything, and as this is the case, the movies that show a successful career woman ending up with a good, kind, sensitive but strong man automatically appeal to women. The problem lies in the fact that we're now so overloaded with these images and presentations that it's hard to separate fact (that all men are imperfectly perfect and even if a guy knows what to say and when, he's probably a player) from fiction (Prince Charming).

Alas, after things like the TV show Sex and the City, which so many men defame, at least some of us have come (or are coming) to the realization that men are not perfect but that one who loves you and supports you, even if he is so strong-willed that he won't tell you when something's bothering him, is the new Prince Charming. Sure, he may sit butt-naked on your white couch or leave his used teabags all over the house, but if he makes you feel happy, even for ten seconds, every day, then you've got a winner. This, my dear readers, I am happy to say I have found.

A small victory

In a fit of ambition this weekend, I submitted various short stories of mine 36 times (I submitted multiple stories to certain outlets). Since then, I've received four rejections and one acceptance. The email from Fresh! Literary Magazine announcing they'd published my short story "Urgent Care" on their website was my first acceptance from a literary magazine. I felt like a balloon set to burst when I got that email on my beautiful little BlackBerry. Not only was it published online, but it will be considered for publication in their February anthology.

This reward for all of my years of laboring over my fiction (and my intensified efforts over the past few weeks) has not indicated to me that I've made. Surely, I'm not that naive, but how refreshing it is to have an objective third party confirming my greatest hopes and granting my dearest wishes.

It's like winning a huge battle in a war you thought you had already lost.

To stop beaming is hard. I love writing; it's the one thing I've always been good at and the one thing I've always wanted to do. If I want to continue getting my fiction published, I'd better get back to writing it.

If you read the story and want to share your thoughts, feel free to email me!

xoxo,
R.E.L.
rosellaeleanor@gmail.com

(pic from weheartit)

The problematic point of view

Lately, and especially when it comes to this blog, my baby, I've been worried that my writing is hitting too close to home. I do not wish to make people look bad, as a lot of my writing is simply meant to be therapeutic, a tool to help me work through my world and to put things in perspective. My views on things are not necessarily the truth -- it's just a point of view and I know that. Still, I have occasionally gotten myself in trouble with friends and loved ones for the things I write. Now that I'm reading Susan Shapiro's Only as Good as Your Word, I feel a bit better.

Shapiro writes, "When students express fear that their family will disown them if they divulge too much, I tell them to just make sure they become successful, since most people are starfuckers and vanity often overrides privacy."

Since I will stop at nothing until I am a published author with plenty of assignments rolling in (and this is already kind of happening, thanks to The Juniata News, The Temple News, and StudentCoupons.com, for which I'm doing a little editing), I'm pretty confident that any anger or resentment will be short lived.

(Image courtesy of weheartit)

Shout out

Quick note. I interviewed author Beth Kephart for two.one.five a few weeks ago and today, I got a shout out on her blog. Check it out here. Pretty cool.