Stories

Everyone has a story and most of us revel in telling them to our friends, families, and co-workers. Relating them orally seems completely natural, letting them flow from our mouths as easy as breathing. Why is it so much more daunting to apply it paper? Oops. I’m dating myself again. Who uses paper anymore? Well, other than during a trip to the bathroom.

Anyhow, like stepping in front of a camera , staring at a blank canvas, or hovering your fingers over that keyboard, the process of creating a permanent tangible record of what lurks in our minds far too often leaves us frustrated. My venture into this world of writing started a mere five years ago. Being socially anxious and an introvert all my life led me to trying to break out of that shell by various endeavors over the years. I can’t say any of them ever worked as I sit here alone typing this. But, on a positive note, the pandemic lock down hasn’t affected me at all. It was already my normal routine.

As I was saying, one of those efforts to become more social led me to the Meetup.com website. If you are not familiar with it, it is about like-minded people getting together to do like-minded things. Maybe you like to sew quilts, go canoeing, hike, star gaze, or practice Tai Chi. There’s likely a group nearby that does all these things. You sign up, join the group, and whammo, you get to hang out with people that share your interests. Pretty easy, huh?

I did just that. I joined a group called Coffee Talk, even though I don’t drink coffee. Sounds silly, I know. What interested me was its premise of discussion on a wide variety of topics and its free-form nature, and, of course, it got me out of the house. I participated for several months with mixed feelings, eventually getting the idea to start my own group. Sapiophiles of the East Valley was born from that original group. Its goal was to have people who were attracted to intelligent conversation come and share their thoughts. Unlike Coffee Talk, I decided to have a set topic each week. I did, however, keep the free-form nature as part of the new group. I’ve never been all that keen on telling others what to do or say. I had originally asked for input from members on the subject of topics, which unfortunately rarely came to fruition. Needless to say, the choosing of topics was relegated to me, which I accepted as it was my group.

The years went by and I met a lot of interesting people, some incredibly smart… and some not so much. Overall, it was by far a pleasant and enlightening experience. Okay, get to the point. In the course of time, I had been complimented on my writing of the subject matter for the weekly meeting several times, which in turn created the idea to pursue it as a career. Even though I have no formal education in either art or writing, in fact, I didn’t even finish high school, I never let that lack of a piece of paper discourage me from doing anything. Like Mark Twain said, “I never let schooling get in the way of my education.”