Tonight I went to the Philip K. Dick Awards at Norwescon. It was a cool and fun experience. I’m so glad I went. And after I was done, I realized that I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t been willing to follow my interests that are different. I left my friends and went by myself.
On the way home I remembered that many of my favorite experiences have been when I left the norm of what my friends were doing and went on my own to do something I wondered about or wanted to try. I became interested in reggae many years ago, but no one I knew wanted to go see Black Uhuru with me. I complained to a friend who was older than I, and he asked, ‘Why don’t you go by yourself?’ I hadn’t even thought of such a thing. I went, loved it, and spent several years after that going out to reggae dancehalls and shows and having the time of my life. I still love that vibe!
Norwescon is celebrated as a place where people of all kinds can come and express themselves and be accepted and encouraged, and yet somehow I feel different here. I feel oddly normal and abnormally odd. But I’m fine with being myself and exploring new horizons.
The image above is a page from my new sketchbook I sent away to The Sketchbook Project. To me it captures the concept of looking for adventure and discovering new worlds – feeding the senses and nourishing the mind and soul.
By the way, congrats to Meg Elison and Sybartic Press for The Book of the Unnamed Midwife – this year’s Philip K. Dick Award Winner and to Jennifer Marie Brissett and Aqueduct Press for Elysium – this year’s Special Citation. It was a privilege to hear the nominees do their readings and a thrill to see you, as winners, so overwhelmed and happy. What an awesome achievement. Thanks for inspiring me!
sheri j kennedy ~ Riverside 
Good for you! And I love those images from your scrapbook.
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Thanks! 🙂
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I love this post. Differences I feel are what make the world an interesting place to be.
I once went to the theater by myself. It was a week night, I knew nobody locally except the people I worked with. I had a really lovely evening. I’m still amazed I had the guts to go alone.
On a tangent… I just ordered myself a new sketchbook this morning. My art has been taking a bit of a back seat – mostly due to me not having many materials at my tiny little house – but last night I watched a film called ‘Frida’ about the life of Frida Kahlo and ended up spending three hours sitting on the floor doing collage into the night. I think she counts as quite a different sort of person.
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It does take a bit of courage to go out alone, but it is almost always vastly rewarding.
So glad you ordered a new sketchbook. New materials often bring a new spark of creativity, I find.
Frida is one of the most inspiring of different people, and I’ve heard more stories than just yours of friends who’ve gone on a binge of creative production just following seeing that film or reading about her. She was amazing, and her influence is still fiery!
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I read a book by Barbara Kingsolver which had her as one of the main characters, called The Lacuna. That was a good book and began my fascination. I think I’m going to have to order her biography in my next book order as she’s certainly become quite an inspiration.
I love how your comments always feel grounding, like they’re saying cherish the difference, you’re not alone.
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I definitely believe that, my friend, and I’m glad it comes through to you in my comments. I hope you have a fabulous day! By the way, I didn’t comment on your hair cutting post, though I have many thoughts…first of all, Good for you!…but sometimes I think I don’t need to tell you and your readers all my thoughts when it is your page to do that. I may still go back to that one though, since it has stayed on my mind.
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