This list was not compiled by online internet searches, dutiful research, or any sort of premeditated concerted effort. Instead, it is a list compiled over years of listening. A personal list of over 600 words I want to share with you.
1/22/23
Put up your dukes! Pump blood! Adrenaline! Even the pacifist enjoys a good fight so long as it stays fictional. But narrative excitement is not only from a chin to check. As much as I dislike drama in my own personal life, it drives a powerful motivation. An unfortunate accident! A terrible rumor. An unfathomable monster. Or even a spectacular celebration. All these ride the highs of climactic reward so desired from a dutiful audience who rode a narrative journey to this high place.
If you may indulge me for a moment, I would like to share with you a great victory I have achieved. I have written a story. A complete story, albeit only the first Act of a grander narrative, a complete story nonetheless. It was through this process of writing from August of 2021 to August of 2022 that I discovered so much about myself. A quarter-lifetime of hesitation, of doubt, of weightlessness was cast aside. In retrospect so much anxiety in my life was self-inflicted. An untamed imagination with no outlet to out-pour vivid dreams!
Reading through this graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby reminded me of how stupid public school is. American “education”. Even if the original book is a great American classic, why on Earth should a 21st century teenager care about what a bunch of overly dramatic rich people from the roaring 20’s are up to? I haven’t read this book since high school. But, this colorful, abbreviated version makes a bit more sense now.