Life Conversations

English

As in the language.
As in the subject.
As in the common interest.
As in the the most productive time of the week.

English as the common theme.

In english class never happened anything. Nothing at all. Nothing interesting or changing or important or exciting or funny. At least not outside our heads. English class was a place of thoughts, of ideas and of creativity. Nothing important for our lives happened there, but everything we did was decided in there. Every single weekend was re-told, analysed and discussed there. Every inspiring idea came, every important decision was made. I believe the other half of this blog is still being written in english class.

Everything we did was decided in there.


"English is a common theme, that much is obvious"
(It’d be easier if life had a common theme, but as you would say, that would make life boring)

I'm not just talking about the language in which this is written, but rather referring to the phrase "old habits die hard". Sitting in class about six weeks since our last English lesson and I realised that I've become quite good at putting the teacher in the background while the majority of my attention focuses on the laptop in front of me. What do I write? I sit and remember with clarity the various lessons when we would lounge here in front of the desk discussing our weekends, our friends, and slowly as the week progressed, discussing things of deeper meaning. Life conversations. Maintaining this connection, I have sectioned this time off for jotting down content for The Winterburg Blog (well when I don’t have to pay attention). It’s a good idea considering the casual conversation surrounding me; discussing the subplots of To Kill a Mockingbird.
As I said before: Old habits die hard.

The only other activity apart from trying to blend out what Ms Trimble is trying to get the class to remember, that had a more inspirating influence on us was catching a bus. Sadly that happened not more often than every wednesday fortnight after tennis, but when we were sitting there in this overfilled bus full of sweaty girls our conversation took us into another world. A world created by the thoughts of two teenage girls in one of their creative phases. And this world is the reason why we are so good friends, and more importantly it is the reason why I´m sitting here writing.

When we were sitting there in this overfilled bus full of sweaty girls our conversation took us into another world.

This blog is a try to keep this world, over a distance of (look up the correct distance between my and your adress). By writing about it, and through that, having things to talk about; to keep up the wonderful thoughtful conversations we used to have. To keep the core of our friendship living.

Of course there are other reasons as well. For example to share our ideas with other people, to keep practising my english, to explore a new way of self-expressement in the world wide web (one that´s not as... unindividual as facebook) and to practicise our only common hobby together.

"I used to think I was the only one who thought life"
(The explanation of a collection)

The wide world of blogging had never really occurred to me as a way to express myself, ourselves, and now looking back I should have had this idea far earlier. Of course it doesn't help if none of my friends is interested in blogging (tumblr not included). That's the beauty of it though; blogging has its own little world. And this little world is filled with teens and adults alike trying to express their feelings, observations and contemplations about themselves and society, trying to find someone who can understand them.

To keep the core of our friendship living.

The idea of writing a blog to keep in touch came us on the last period of my last schoolday at my host school. The maths teacher was talking in the background (which we didn´t really notice, because our ears are trained from english class to just overhear all background noises including the teachers voice) when we had the idea. It was all we needed, already five minutes later we had a whole piece of paper scribbled full of ideas about what to do, how to do it and so many other awesome ideas.

"May I ask Why?"
('Cause everything has a reason)

Imagine the view in front of you rippling and fading into a remembered image. It’s a maths classroom and the teacher is sitting at the front desk pouring over the test papers in front of her. Students are talking, giggling and in general, not paying attention. Towards the back of the room two students have their heads bent over a piece of grid paper.
"We need to do something, to keep in touch after you leave."
"But what?"
A few moments of silence fall over the pair.
"I KNOW!! We can write a blog."
And so the idea was created. The two students each pulled out pens and started scribbling over the piece of paper. Ideas, words, key points quickly filled the page. The fruit of this newly grown tree? A title, The Winterburg Blog. In reference to itself, I believe this should be included.

As time went by more and more reasons presented themselves as to why the blog should go ahead. My father asked me "Why write a blog?" I explained: "This blog is a way for us to keep in touch and collaborate our ideas and discuss our contemplations, while sharing them with any peers who are interested."

This text is like a leftover of another world. A world that is one the edge between going under and existing further. Not really, but it sounds so good. (Hahaha Classic)

Even though we have the best reasons to do this, I´m still very conscious about the riskiness of this project. It´s a way of expressing ourselves, myself, but with that there are always doubts coming along. You find the courage to say the truth, to stay honest and write what you really think, but by doing that it makes you so vulnerable. I´m not a person who gives much on the opinion of others, but I´d be lying if I said I don´t care about it at all. And I am a person who never lies. So I am setting myself the goal to write what I think and not what (nonexistant-) readers might like or think. I don´t know if that´s gonna work. I am alerady not as confident about the whole thing as I normally am about most other things, and that means something. Yes, I am nervous and I am afraid. Afraid people will laugh at me for this. But I guess I´ll have to take the risk. Just give it a try, or I´ll never find out if it´s the right thing.

“And it’s ok for you to care, Cos I'm not going anywhere
And while you wonder, If you should let me in
I only wanted to begin”
(and the lyrics return)

I had wondered if this was the best decision to make, that is, to write some kind of blog. I started thinking hard about what I wanted to say and I noticed that this was the first time I’d really be writing a lot for other people to see. I realised that this is not the way I should go about it. I had to remind myself to write what I think and not be influenced by the way I want others to see me. And yet while thinking about it, I come to the conclusion that blogging is an expression of self, and really I can choose to portray me however I like. 

Will it be a fail? That is in essence a very logical question to ask. I don’t believe it will be a fail. So long as we believe in what we’re writing it doesn’t matter what people think.

I´m not a person who gives much on the opinion of others, but I´d be lying if I said I don´t care about it at all.

"I realised that blogging could be what I need to prevent myself from going crazy. I don’t know if it’s the right thing and I don’t even know if I’m good at it, but maybe I should give it a try. And I should ask somebody if trying not to go crazy is reason enough to try." (That´d be you)

At least I can be sure I´m not writing anything wrong, because in our world what we think counts. The Winterburg Blog is a door into our world. Like the tiny little door Alice goes through in Alice in wonderland. (funny cause it´s Alice and me who our world belongs to)

So, if you´re interested, come in. You´ll be welcome.

So, if you´re interested, come in. You´ll be welcome. We don´t have a mad hatter and exciting fights between good and bad, but I´m sure we can offer a metaphorical tea party and lively exchange of interesting thoughts. And if you think different to us, that´s great. We´re gonna have fun, because we´re cool that way.
So welcome. Welcome to the Winterburg. The collaboration (and documentation) of the contemplations and observations on human nature and its society.

"They say great minds think alike, but they don't, because that would be boring. Diversity makes life interesting" So please tell us what you think.