Killing the List

As you know, I decided not to complete the 40 things to do before I was 40 because I decided it was actually a stupid idea. Anyway, I wrote an article about it and pitched it to every possible home, but nobody wanted it, so - as I promised - here is the piece. Please let me know what you think.

Sarah x

Killing the List

Back in January of this year with my 40th birthday looming in October, I started a blog at www.sarahat40.blogspot.com

It was the first of – yes, you guessed it – 40 things I was going to do before I reached 40. Friends had sent me links to others people’s blogs and bought me books and I’d made a list of things that sounded cool (and not too dangerous), to do.

Now - at the end of August – I’ve managed to do 10 of them with varying degrees of success (I’ll never perform on the harmonica in public!), and have realised that I don’t actually give a monkeys about all the others.

In fact, I’ve come to realise that if I’d really wanted to do these things, I would have done them in the 39 years I’ve already had. It also struck me (co-incidentally in the week when Dave Freeman – the guy who invented the whole “list” concept – died), that in not doing the things on the list, I’ve done some far more interesting things by just living.

I have – for example – become a freelance journalist; collected lots of interesting pebbles and glass on the beach with my family; bought and flown a kite; done
some great hikes; knitted a mitten (and I’m going to do the other one to make the pair); made new friends and reconnected with own ones on Facebook and spent many wonderful hours in the company of my husband and son.
In not doing 30 of the 40 things, I’ve discovered that I don’t want to learn how to skateboard, play the drums or write a song. I don’t want to bury a time capsule, send a message in a bottle, or order a vodka martini shaken not stirred. I have no desire to be drawn by a street artist, have tea at The Ritz or go to a health spa. I also don’t want to read a Russian novel, complete The Times crossword, learn a new word every day for a month, audition something, become a street entertainer or be on TV.

What I actually want to do is get on with the business of doing what I’m doing, being a wife, mother and freelance journalist. I want to provide a comfortable home and good food for my family. I want to be around to take my son to and from school. I want to continue to write and forge little successes in my chosen career. I want to train as a Cub Leader and enjoy Scouting. I want to look back on my life without regret and think “I did what I wanted to do, I lived a good life, I provided for my family and made a little difference to the people whose lives I touched.”

Do I regret making my list? Do you know what? Yes, I do. I made a list of things I thought other people would think were cool, that other people would envy me doing. I made the list because I thought it would impress other people
and make them think I was interesting.

Writing the list was shallow and showy. Not completing the list isn’t a failure, it’s a realisation that there are more important things in life, like honesty and responsibility and so the thing to do before – and after – I’m 40 is to live my life to the full, honestly and without regret.

Manic every day of the week, never mind about Monday!

Yep, I'm rushed off my tiny toes again with a big pile of deadlines coming up.

On top of those, I'm writing two projects for a local school, with term started again I'm back on school runs, homework, after school clubs and sandwiches AND I'm starting to train as a Cub Leader.  Actually, I haven't even started the training part yet, but I have started attending the Pack Nights (great fun, but exhausting).

I'm hoping to have everything set up to take on a PR client in the next few weeks and then I'll probably cut back on my journalism work for a little while so that I can develop my other interests.

Things are looking interesting at the moment, at the risk of sounding naff, I wonder if life really does begin at 40?

Back at the chalkface...

Although, there's not much call for chalk any more, what with interactive whiteboards and PCs.

Anyway, I'm developing 2 projects for a local school based around writing.  The first will take high-achieving writers and - hopefully - push them that bit harder to help them be better writers. The other will be to help interested children to develop a termly online magazine to profile their news.

Being a former teacher and a writer makes this right up my street, at the moment the projects are in the really early stages of development, but I'm excited about the opportunity to share my experience and enthusiasm with the children.  I'll keep you informed of where the projects go...

Sarah x

Problems in Pregnancy

Read about them here in a piece I wrote for online magazine Womens Everything!

No one has mourned the passing of my blog

No, despite over 1000 hits to sarahat40, no one has made any mention of its passing.  Clearly, all those American readers (who were they, no one ever owned up to reading it, apart from Gavin & Jules, and neither of them live in America!)

Anyway, since the passing of said blog, I've been busily writing my usual trickle of articles.  I'm currently dwelling in December, writing about Advent and for the next week or so, I'll be covering lots of November and December happenings. 

I do find it odd that I live a lot of my professional life 3 months in the future, but it pays the bills, so who am I to complain?

I'm also knitting more since I stopped blogging quite so randomly, so if you're good I might let you see some of my creations...

Sarah x

The Sound of Silence

I pitched an article to some newspapers last week and now I'm sitting around waiting to hear.  

The fact that you don't know what's going on makes it a really difficult situation to be in.  Do you chase them up to check what's going on?  Do you assume the silence means they're not interested and send it on to other sources (giving you problems if two editors eventually come back to you and say "yes please"), or do you give up and post the article on your own blog or website (after which, you're going to have problems selling on a second-hand product!)

If your article isn't seasonal or related to a particular anniversary then you might be able to squirrel it away and bring it out again at a later date, but if your feet is time-related it may become useless if you can't sell the piece.

The piece I pitched last week will cease to be relevant next month and so, if I haven't managed to shift it before then, it'll appear on this blog in mid-October.

Keep your fingers crossed that I find a paying home for it.

Jobs for the future

I really love this post by Kevin Roberts.  I want to be a storyteller, or maybe an optimist!

Long Hand

Its no good, I don't like working straight on to the computer 'cos its not the way my mind works, so I've gone back to writing first drafts in long hand before transferring them.  I know some people feel it takes longer, but its much easier for me to see how a thing is developing if I'm actually writing it with a pen.

Anyway, I'm doing some research for some fiction writing at the moment, so I'm putting together a nice notebook full of odd stuff that strikes me as being potentially useful somewhere along the way.  How much of it I'll use I don't know, but I'm certainly having fun putting it together.

Sarah x

Catching Up

It seems ages since I blogged about work, so here goes...

School started today, which means I'm back to working my "normal" hours.

My resolve not to work during August lasted just long enough to get away for a break, but then a few interesting pieces came up that were too good to turn down, so I put in a few hours a week.

Now I'm back to writing the usual education stuff, plus pitching some first-person pieces and putting together a book proposal and making a start on the fiction element of the Writers Bureau course I'm doing.  On top of that, I've got The Home Corner to keep developing.

So, September will be mostly working!

Sarah