Post-grad life is in full spin, and I am doing what I tend to do best--winging it; flying through the air on a magic carpet, or actually just tumbling down the stairs while riding a bath towel. I just started an internship at an art gallery, complete with all of the obscure-nature I could hope for. Things are unsure, bizarre, and really quite fitting.
While formerly applying for jobs, walking my sweet dog, or merely staring at the shapes in my ceiling while trying to fall asleep, I have been doing a lot of imagining. Such and such research says that we continue to develop until we are 25, which is only a couple of years away for me. I am thinking about the person I have become, or the person I may want to be. I also have spent a pretty large amount of time (especially while on the elliptical at the local YMCA) daydreaming of made-up pasts that aren't mine, but could have been in another place and time. These fantastical versions of me are what help get me through the mundane, Feel free to place yourselves in them, for these templates are fun for all ages.
A List Of Alternative Lives That I Sometimes Wish I Had
The Connecticut Sweetheart: I grew up in a white, modest house (with columns on either side of the front steps) , accompanied by matching white, modest furniture and carpet. My father worked at a local law firm, while my mother served as the head of the PTA or the school-board or something of the like. I went to an ivy-league school, coming home on the summers to my full-sized bed with a quilted mattress, with the light from my bay-window dancing across the top, warming it for when I lay down after traveling. I primarily wear pastel skirt and sweater combos, sometimes sneaking in a pair of saddle shoes for an eccentricity. My parents own a lakehouse that I spent much of my childhood exploring, making it my "safe, happy place" that I drive to when I am upset. Whenever my boyfriend or best friend and I would get in a fight, they could find me standing on the wooden porch of the lakehouse at sunset, wrapped in the same quilt from my bed, the wind blowing my hair (they would only ever find me this way from behind or from the side, watching my profile against the lowering sun ). My father would also own a boat, I would be part of a tea-party club with my childhood friends, and have a glass doll in Victorian dress cleverly named "Dolly" that I received at birth and feel very sentimental towards.
The Beach Babe: I had lived in a beachhouse in the Floridian heat my hole life. Even now that I am in college, my dad still recreationally surfs with me (he taught me how as soon as I could walk), and my mom wears loose white tops and bright flowing skirts while making homemade wind chimes to sell to the tourists in town from our local sea-shells and driftwood. I am tanned from the hours I had spent in the sun since birth, and toned from my active life of swimming and surfing. We also own a couple of jet skis, and I have gone parasailing with my friends more times that I can count. I usually walk around in a bikini top and long,loose skirt like my mother's, and always barefooted. Even though it is hot, I wear my messy hair down, damp from the salty ocean and sprinkled with sand (we have an outdoor shower behind our house that I prefer to use). The house is wooden, and seems to be falling apart with the crooked boards nailed across the outside, but it will withstand time. The shutters and porch are painted light blue and salmon, chipping from the wind and occasional storms that shake the foundation. I spend most of my days on the beach, or reading on my porch hammock. I am the kind of person you would see sitting on her board close to the water, the waves licking her toes, as she uses a shell to carve out a fallen coconut and eat the meat, muscular arms rippling in the beating sun. I have also named all of the usual dolphins that play in the shallow water close to sunrise and sunset.
Everglades/Wilderness Woman: Both of my parents work as biologists in the everglades region, and have done so since before I was born. We live in the heart of the swamp, in between two other houses of biologists and their children close to my age. I grew up playing with these children, with our only rule being "be home by the time we ring the dinner bell". As a young girl, I would wake early and eat my father's homemade pancakes while my mom read the paper at the table. I knew that I wanted to study the everglades some day, just like them, and figured I would get a start as soon as possible. After eating, I would meet my neighbor friends outside, and we would be off catching snakes and small alligators. Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I would learn everything about the various everglades ecosystems, and would have seen multiple gators and manatees by the time I became an adult. Everyone at my small town's school would have thought that I was untamed and weird,but one day when I went off to study biology in college, I would be seen as really interesting and unattainable. As a young adult, I only wear work boots, khaki shorts, and earth-tone colored button up sleeveless shirts.
New Orleans Artist: I live in the heart of the city, groomed to love the bright colors and the wet heat. My parents are both musicians, and taught me jazz at an early age. I can play the piano, the sax, the guitar, and can sing. I grew up with them performing in the streets, not even for tips, but to form a comradery with their friends and the locals or visitors. When I was younger, I would sing along with them, or dance between the instrumentalists with a little tambourine. After I graduated high school, I decided to study music. Whenever I came home during the summers or over holiday breaks, I would play in the streets with friends like my parents, and sometimes with my parents because that is a nice tradition that we share together. I excel in my jazz studies at the collegiate level, hanging out in coffee shops with my classmates saying things like "You don't know real jazz". Eventually I land a job playing at a blues bar, and teach piano and sax lessons on the side.
New Yorker Italian: (This is kind similar to my actual childhood and life). My whole, big, Italian family lives outside of New York city, all on the same block. I can walk next door to my grandparent's, or around the corner to my aunt's and uncle's. I grew up playing kickball and hockey in the street with my cousins, or working at the family-owned Italian restaurant that I can see from my bedroom window on the second floor of my house. Abbruzzo's has been in my family for generations, and we have always all worked together mixing sauces, tossing pizza, and pouring wine. I knew one day that I want to own the restaurant, even though I went to school and got a degree anyway. Abbruzzo's and my family will always be my true love, and they both have my back even if they are sometimes overbearing. When I talk, I speak in Italian whenever I get really mad, or use Italian terms of endearment when comforting little ones or close friends. Whenever I am dating anyone, he has to pass a series of tests but eventually loves that I have a big family too. However, I will probably never completely settle down because I love working at the restaurant, even though my parents pressure me daily to give them grandbabies.
Good luck, daydreamers,
Jordan
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