Journeys of Thought

The following was written in a session titled ‘Journeys of Thought’, an NCTE convention workshop designed to teach teachers how to encourage students to write in order to discover. The first sentence of each section was the given ‘prompt’.

I wonder why I’ve never lived in a big city. I mean, I realize that I often have panic attacks in large crowds, but I imagine that has to go away eventually. There is so much to do in even a smaller large city like Philadelphia–I could spend days just eating at the Reading Terminal Market and not get bored–nevermind all of the great things to buy there to cook, and beyond that, all of the restaurants.

This makes me realize that there still is a part of me that is not afraid to try scary things. I used to be unafraid girl, and I thought I missed that girl–I’d assumed she died–but she’s still there, just buried. I’m not saying I’m going to pick up and move anywhere–and certainly not to Philadelphia.