Counting Down the Days

May 27: A Letter from the Author

To whom it may concern,

When I started writing this collection, my intentions were purely practical; I had just finished all of my high school classes for the last time, and I found myself with literally zero obligations. Daunted by the abyss of summer before me, I got it into my head that I wanted to have some form of structure in my life. I wanted to practice self-discipline, and also produce some creative work. I thought that, if I got into the habit of writing anything and everything, my creative juices would be more primed for other projects, should I want to do them. 

I am now roughly two weeks into this collection. In that time I have come to realize that, while my motives above still hold true, I also have two additional reasons for subjecting myself to such a tiresome venture. In this letter I hope to address these reasons, and perhaps provide some insight into the themes that will appear in my work. This letter is, if you will,  a forward which has taken me twelve days to come up with. 

My first reason is that, as I have been writing this collection, I have realized that it also serves as a form of comfort. This year so far has been weird, possibly the weirdest I have ever lived through. In the midst of this weird, changing world, I have unconsciously found myself returning over and over again to the same themes in my work: themes such as nature,  time, history, repetition, and consistency. I have been, in a way, processing my experiences during this pandemic by writing about the reality of change itself, and reminding myself of the things that have stayed the same in spite of everything.

The other reason I am doing this is simply for posterity; I know that I am witnessing history in action, and I want to capture every moment of my experience. I don't want future media shaping my view of the past. I want to be able to look back on this summer and know with absolute certainty what was going through my head. Even if I am not recording my day-to-day life in this collection, I am recording what is important to me on any given day, and if I am already sensing a pattern twelve days into it, then I know there will be even more to analyze in the years to come. 

So, there you have it. This letter serves as an introduction, a forward, and most importantly, a statement of purpose. I hope that whoever reads this collection of mine will feel some of the comfort that it gives me. I hope that they will take some time to themselves to think about the constants in their life. I addressed this letter to "whom it may concern" in the hopes that other people would read it, but if nobody does, then this letter is simply to some future version of myself, looking back on (I hope) the weirdest time in my life. 

Sincerely,

Grace, age 18