Five Sentence Fiction – Fresh – Rated PG13 – Humorous

Lillie McFerrin brings us Five Sentence Fiction and this week’s one-word prompt “Fresh.”  Below the pic is my contribution.  For the other stories, go >HERE<.  Enjoy!!!

Source: http://lilliemcferrin.com/five-sentence-fiction-fresh/ Reuse licensed assumed.

Fresh

“There’s Just One Thing”

By Scott L Vannatter – January 4, 2015

Newman sat down softly on the concrete slabs beside the portal entry to the public library.

He really could not decide whether or not to be happy, sad, angry, or depressed; he just knew that, whatever he felt, it would not be enough.

He had managed to develop the newest, freshest way to meet new women, get their attention, and ask them out with a good chance of success; happy was a good word.

In fact, he had just asked out a beautiful brunette with stunning brown eyes, long hair, full lips, and what’s more, she had said “yes” when he mentioned dinner that night; yes, happy was a good word.

His memory, however, was a bit spotty and he realized soon after they had parted that he had not only forgotten her name and number, but could not even remember the restaurant where they were to meet nor the time; yes, depressed was a good word.

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Namaste,

Scott

Belief?

This is a pic of the 61 year old man who won the Melbourne Marathon.

I just finished Mollie Player’s post for today. It was about a farmer who set the world record for a marathon by running slowly for over five and a half days without sleep. It is here –> post <–.

Thing is the post is about belief and what you can do with it. This guy believed he should be able to win and did, but it is also about how he didn’t know he was supposed to sleep, so he didn’t.

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I am going to tell a story on myself.

Article about writing your Thesis. Some good ideas. One is don’t complain and get depressed about it. Good one. I didn’t!
(Click pic to read)

When I was working on my Masters in English, we were told we had to either write a Master’s Thesis or take 36 hours of coursework instead of 28 and the Thesis.

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Now, at the time, I was married, working full-time, and strapped for cash. While I enjoyed the classwork, I knew that the price of the classes (the 4 hours I wouldn’t have to pay for) was worth the effort to write the thesis.

Now, I also had never written a thesis before. I was told it had to be either a well-researched new idea on an old topic or something brand-new.

I knew I didn’t have time to do all the research so I chose to write about the poetry of one of my professors. She had published two books of poetry at the time. I sat down at work in September and began reading her works and taking notes. I did this, fairly painstakingly, through to early December.

I knew I had until about Mid-March to finish so I was pretty happy with myself.

Just about the time I was finishing my reading and notes, my overseer for the thesis called me and said she needed a written first draft by about the first of the year! Hmm, surprise to me!

Not quite, but almost what I worked on.

So, for the next two and a half weeks, I poured myself into typing (by the way, there were no PCs then. I had to type it out on the bigger computer at work – after hours – and then reformat and go through all kinds of loopholes to get it to look typed.). I turned in the first draft (this is why it is called “rough” and the three professors / readers tore it to shreds. I wondered just how many red pens were wasted on the correcting of my draft.

I do remember one of the readers hated the word “that”. I have a tendency to say “that” quite a bit (I try to not say it much anymore, at least, in writing), so the bloodied manuscript was redone without the word “that” in it more than once or twice. (Now, for another funny one.  I was tired when writing this post.  When I proofread it, I had to remove the word “that” about 6-8 times where I used it unnecessarily!)

My adviser asked me if I would even be able to finish it on time. I think she felt I should give it up. I set to work and, for the next almost three months, I typed and corrected my little heart out. The finished paper was between 85-95 pages long and was a study on her poetry from the aspect of her use of light and dark.

I did get it done and it was accepted (hmm, I suppose that would truly be the first time I was “published” as it was made into two copies – one for me and one for the school library where it resides even now).

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I had not given my Thesis a lot of thought in years, but I now realized I might not have tried to do a thesis on something new (and so long) if I had truly known about it. My belief was in myself and my ability to do whatever I set my mind to (though, I am not sure I even knew this consciously).

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I have written more in a month, in the last few years, than I did for the entire Thesis paper. I have even written a book (bad book, you will not ever see it), but I am still pretty proud of my Thesis achievement during college. I believed in myself and was determined to do something which felt right to do. I didn’t need all the details in the beginning; I simply needed to believe I could do it.

Just like the farmer who won the race, I won my own race with time.
How about you?

Do you have any accomplishments you are amazed you managed to do them?

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Namaste,
Scott