Antioch in the Spring

There are those defining moments, and I know you know what I mean.

I had taken a few days in Antioch when I was a young man. I had come from Denver, which in March is so unbelievable winter burned that everything is brown. Sure, there are a few things trying to bloom, but the world is yet to become spring like. At the time of the story, Antioch was a welcomed green sight that I was instantly in love.

Of course at the time of this story, I was still thinking about becoming a botanist. In retrospect, it may have been at this visit that I was finally pushed over the side. The precipice, of course, in the spring of 1996: should I be a writer or a botanist?

I was staying with my grandparents. The beauty of this was that they were not very attentive and I was in my mid 20s. I got to do anything that I wanted with the days. I took a number of walks, which was nice. I got off to the grocery store one afternoon. I had gone to the store only to find a notebook, something to write in. I was having some ideas for short stories which I was able to construct on my long walks.

I was in college at the time. I worked mostly on a word processor. Anything that required me to write, I used recycled paper and I used recycled manila folders to keep my papers together.  I was not a notebook user.

I may not have been a notebook user, but I knew that I didn't like the spiral notebooks. I still don't. the spirals become out of shape and turning the pages becomes difficult. In that grocery store on that day, I bought my first composition notebook.

I have talked about the merits of these notebooks before. The pages are sewn, which gives it a very durable quality. The size, I found to be perfect too. The size is just under the standard 8.5 x 11. This means that they are more transportable too.

Now, so many years later, I have hundreds of these things. I have been carrying one since 1996. I fill, on average 1 to 2 per month. That's a lot of words.

But when I think about the time in Antioch, kin my youth, this is what I think: when you are a writer, you are never lonely and when you have a composition notebook and a pen, you are never bored.