Storytime. I used to love it as a child. At 2.45, most afternoons, up until year 1, my teacher used to read us a story. A mere five hours later, I'd have story time again at home before bed. My childhood was built up around other peoples fairytales, but now my stories are formulated from reality and experience.
There's nothing I love more than hearing people tell their stories. Everyone has a story to tell and not a single one is the same. I used to be pretty shy as a child, and even now, sometimes I recoil back into my shell, but I've grown to love talking to people as this is how you hear their stories.
Last weekend, I was having lunch in a busy cafe and was joined by a little old lady called Doris as there were no tables left. I thought it might be awkward me stuffing my face with a baguette but in the 17 minutes it took her to drink her milky coffee with two brown sugars, I learnt that she had a husband called John who had fought in the Second World War, that she was a Mother of two, James who had a very clever job that she didn't understand with computers and a daughter Sarah who had three children of her own. She told me all about Aylesbury, she'd lived there all her life so she told me how it's changed, what shops there used to be, how much smaller the market is. We could have genuinely talked all day but I was only on my lunch break, and she was meeting Edith in The Bell for something to eat at 1.15.
In those 17 minutes it was story time again. It's amazing how much you can learn about someone in a very short space of time. I'm not proposing stopping and talking to every random stranger you meet, but if someone wants to tell you their story, let them, they might be the most interesting person you've ever met and the world would be a pretty dull place without other people.
What I'm focusing on now however is my story. I am the writer, the narrator, the protagonist all in one, and I'm only on the first chapter. I've had a pretty productive week for once; I've found something I love doing and it's proving successful. I've spent my week looking around, planning all my possible pathways to chapter two. I learnt early on that life wasn't a fairytale; the world isn't full of unicorns, Princesses and Prince Charmings but this has only encouraged me to work harder for my happy ending.
