Week 48/2024: Endings
Week of 25 November 2024
This week I was tired. Things just didn’t work out.
I didn’t sleep enough, I hurt myself exercising, I am very tired, and to top the week off a family member who I don’t live with, but had visited the day before, tested positive for covid on Sunday.
So that’s altogether a shitful week.
I guess that’s okay. Some weeks are better than others.
It wasn’t all shit though.
Completions and endings
Nanowrimo
National Novel Writers Month (Nanowrimo) is a writing challenge that began in the US in 1999. The goal is to write 50,000 words of your novel in the month of November.
There have been some major issues with Nano the organisation recently, and I really don’t have anything to do with them other than to use their dashboard to keep track of my projects.
I’ve taken part in this challenge a few times. In 2001 I started but abandoned the project because of RSI, and the novel, whatever it is, is lost on an old computer somewhere, in software that no longer works.
In 2014 I completed 50,000 words, and in 2019 I managed just over 7,000. In 2020 I set my bar a bit lower and aimed for 15,000 words, which I achieved but it didn’t count as a Nano project.
This year I set myself the same goal but put it in the wrong place on my Nano dashboard so it looked like I was aiming for 50,000 words. My actual goal was 500 words a day, for a total of 15,000, which I achieved on 30 November. The final word count was 15,385 words of a project that has been bouncing round in my head for a while, and I really just wanted to write it out and see what happened.
I learned a bit from doing this.
Mainly, I need to come up with a clearer idea of my setting and be able to describe it before I start writing.
The goes same for my characters. It was frustrating getting to a bit where a character said, for example, they couldn’t possibly do something because they are a [profession] and getting time off was difficult. Which job is this? What sort of person does that job? And why is this character so damn self-important? (I think I’m going to kill them off. Or at least have them disappear in mysterious circumstances. Maybe both.)
So before I do any more work on this, I’m going to take some time to flesh the main characters out and research the locations.
Even so, I wrote every day in November, even if it was 29 words scribbled on the back of an envelope, and I averaged 512 words a day. As a result, I have 15,000 words I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t done this.
Farewell to school
Wednesday was Kramstable’s year 12 formal. I met up with him in the park to make some photos—and he surprised me with his new hair colour!
He had finished school a couple of weeks ago with his final exam, following the final week of school activities his college held in early November.
So there were a few ‘final moments’, wrapping up his 13 years of formal schooling.
It was kind of weird, looking back over the last 13 years and noticing how much had changed from my perspective. (A lot has changed for him too but that goes without saying!)
Looking back
In 2011 when Kramstable started Kinder, and for the next few years in primary school, I would take him to school every day. I’d chat to his teachers, see what work he was doing. I was really involved in activities, ranging from parent help in the classroom to helping out on excursions (and I got to do a lot of fun things that way), and walking with his class to nearby activities like swimming lessons.
I’d attend most of the assemblies his class showed in, and at the end of year 6 there was the year 6 panto, their big day out and the leavers assembly. I was there for his first day and there to see him walk out the school gates on his final day. There may have been tears on both occasions.
Things changed in high school. I had (and took!) the opportunity to go on only one class excursion and attended a couple of assemblies where Kramstable received an award. My only contact with his teachers were through parent-teacher interviews. He was in year 7 band performances, and the highlights were obviously his performances in the school musicals over the years, but my connection to that school was much much less than it had been to his primary school.
No more school drop-offs (that had stopped a few years earlier) but I was grateful he was okay (just) with me taking photos of him at school on his first and last days each year. There was a huge assembly on the final day of year 10 to farewell the class of 2022, and yes, it was as emotional as the one at the end of year 6 had been.
College changes everything
Once he started college (year 11) last year, there were no more photos out the front of the school. (There may have been a couple at home.) No assemblies, nothing like that. Again, my main contact with the school was through parent-teacher interviews and the various performances Kramstable was involved in. (I think there were actually more things I could attend here than at high school—probably due to his subject choices.)
In the final week of school at the beginning of November, I saw photos of the college Celebration Assembly on Instagram and read their farewell message to students two days later on the last day of classes.
It was a very different ‘last day’ experience for me to the farewells from primary school and high school.
A virtual ending.
Completions and endings
Kramstable’s last day of school was a complete contrast to his first day of school. In 2011 I had spent weeks, months even, preparing myself for the moment I released him into the school system and all its bits that I both agree and disagree with. But the last day of school crept up on me. It just came and went like any other day. I didn’t even see Kramstable the morning of his last day, so the only photo I have to commemorate this day is one he made himself.
Really, the only thing that made this day different to any other school day was that post on Instagram. But just that paragraph was enough to stir up the same emotions I had felt at the end of year 6 and the end of year 10, even without the accompanying assemblies.
So now my young human has finished school and I’m sad for me, but excited for him to have such a world of possibilities before him. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does next.
In the words of his school
Always remember that learning is a lifelong adventure and the path ahead is full of possibilities.
Good luck, stay curious, and never stop striving to be the best version of yourself. You have bright futures ahead, and we look forward to hearing about the amazing things you will achieve.
Week 48 summary
Habit tracker
- 15 minutes exercise sequence in the morning (7 days): 4/7
- Hip exercises (7 days): 2/5
- Go outside before 8 am (7 days): 7/7
- 2 walks or bike rides or a combination (6 days): 3/6
- Long walk (1 day): 0/1
- Evening exercise sequence (7 days): 4/7
- 9.00 shutdown (6 days): 3/6
What was the best thing about this week?
Photos of Kramstable before his Year 12 formal. He looked amazing!
I was also lucky to go to Government House to see Slabs receive an award, so that was pretty cool too. (See, the whole week wasn’t so bad . . .)
What did I notice this week?
MyState Bank has moved into Liverpool Street.
I have no idea when this happened!
What did I learn this week?
Luis von Ahn, who co-invented the website security program CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test for telling Computers and Humans Apart) also co-founded the language learning app Duolingo.
What am I reading?
- The script of my play for my acting class
- Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri.
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