Weekly Composition Challenge

Challenge 6: Origins

Let's say babies are blank slates. The slates come in different sizes and colors, but the writing is only after the wrapping comes off. Where do you come from, really? What shaped you? Whether it was nature or nurture, what got into your young bones and shaped them? Tell me about your hometown. Your first best friend. Tell me the fairytale that rocked your soul. What's your origin?

Peter at PeterDeWolf.com
"Is it because Barney has one on 'How I Met Your Mother'?"
"Can you use it to meet girls?
"Have you turned fruit?"
To which I reply:  "Yes."  "Yes."  "I had one first."  "I guess."  "Not that I'm aware of."
(Man, I hope that I answered those in the right order.)

Amanda at LittleWhiteLiar.Typepad.com
...I used to say I was born on the bayou. I liked the image that conjured up: some voodoo baby with twigs in her curly hair, sweat-shiny and wicked-charming, naked in the southern humidity...

Kelsi at ThisCouldTakeAwhile.Blogspot.com
...the comfort of the coffee, and the solitude of the walk, the grim beauty of the pacific ocean and the quaintness of the town all live in the core of me to express how it is that, at the base of it all, i really feel the world should be...

Meg at PuritanJamShort.Blogspot.com
...We were pretty poor, apparently, but I didn't learn that until I was much older. Sometimes, when I talk to people about our vegetable gardens in the side yard, our wee pumpkin patches, our weeklong living room forts and extended backyard camp outs, people look at me like I grew up in a different decade...

Chavie at hicsuntdracones.blogspot.com
...Only after talking at length with me does the lilt in my voice come out, reminiscent of early Woody Allen. It is hard to explain why it is I identify so strongly with a city I left behind in my adolescence - over a decade ago....

Adrian at FearofLanding.Blogspot.com
...The timing worked out and I was on the last flight out, with my mom, in a cardboard carrying box. This would be the beginning of my life of cramped, cost-effective traveling...

Jamelah at Jamelah.net
...One of my longest long-standing jokes is that I am the only Arab redneck you will ever meet. Being an Arab redneck means that I talk a lot and I don’t like wearing shoes. In case you were wondering...

Lesley at HowNowWit.Blogspot.com
...I am, therefore, not the product of any hometown. And I fear sometimes that the ugly secret behind being from everywhere is that where I’m actually from is…well, nowhere...

Liz at TheLFactor.Typepad.com
...I come from traditional parents. Republicans. Don't fight in front of the kids. Go out to dinner 3 nights a week because marriage comes before children. Because I said so, that's why...

Composition Challenge 1: Parents' First Impression

Now that you have known your parents for decades, you probably have a stockpile of embarrassing anecdotes about them.  You can probably imitate them from the tiniest inflection to the the last screeching vowel of your own name, screamed in irritation.  But how much do you know about the circumstances under which your parents met - what they thought of each other initially?  Thinking about it, the moment of your parents' introduction is the most important human interaction of your life (you know, the one that actually started it).  How did they get from an awkward opening to shared parenthood?  Find out.  Write it down.

Amanda at LittleWhiteLiar.com
...The first thing that really drew my attention about your father was that he was white, single, and spoke English...

Jamelah at Jamelah.net
...My dad talked to my mom that night, I guess in between being a hit with the ladies or something, and my mom decided that he would be a fun summer fling because “he was a good dancer, and good-looking and I thought I’d have fun for the summer. I met him in the spring.” Seven years (and me!) later, my parents split up for the final time (I was 2). So it was a very long summer fling, then...

Meg at PuritanJamShort.Blogspot.com
..."Did you know his nickname was Moose?"
"Oh, how-not-at-all charming. No. You  mean like in Archie and Jughead? Midge's boyfriend? Weird."...

Kelsi at ThisCouldTakeAwhile.Blogspot.com
...the only hitch came when my mother offered an ultimatum - he could continue eating meat and lose her, or he could become a vegetarian and marry her. naturally, he gave up the meat. (man. the things men do for sex. seriously.)...