twenties girl

chick lit - is genre fiction within women's fiction which addresses issues of modern women often humorously and lightheartedly. Although sometimes it includes romantic elements, it is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because in chick lit the heroine's relationships with her family or friends may be just as important as her romantic ones

over the last couple of years i've re-realized my love of reading. i love to get lost in a novel, in the characters & relationships. sometimes i get so involved in the story line that i will jump ahead on the page to try & get a sneak peak as to how the conversation on the page will work itself out. sometimes i'll cry with the characters, or laugh outloud. often i can not do much else until i'm done reading it, and then feel a little put-off that my relationship with these characters is over, and does not come alive outside of the pages!

this weekend i've been lost in a sophie kinsella novel. i think she is a wonderfully clever writer. it may not be anything earth shattering but the story line weaves in and out of itself & many times i feel personally invested in her characters. this novel is called "twenties girl" and i feel like it couldn't have come at a better time in my life... not because i'm in my twenties - although that seems like the obvious connection.

tomorrow i am starting a new job. walking into the doors of the therapeutic recreation world for the first official time. there have been teeny glimmers of nervousness, but in general i am just very truly excited. i love the idea of working to improve quality of life - dignity - respect - enjoyment! how does this connect to a piece of chick-lit you may ask? well.. allow me to make the connection

the main character in the story is Lara, and her great-aunt Sadie has passed away & comes back as a ghost, asking Lara to help her find this old necklace. whenever Sadie appears, she is back in her twenties. she died at 105, but she felt the most alive in her 20's. Lara goes on a date for Sadie, complete in a flapper dress, and dances the charleston... all for Sadie. At one point Lara decides to go back to Sadie's care home, and she brings along some CD's from the 20's - an era that many of the seniors would have lived through. And this is the portion that i just loved:

on the other side of the room, an old man sitting under a tartan blanket with a tank of oxygen next to him turns his head. I can see the light of recognition coming on in faces around the room. Somebody starts humming along in a quavery voice. One woman even begins tapping her hand, her whole self lit up with pleasure...

i feel a sudden lump in my throat as i watch. They are all Sadie inside, aren't they? They're all in their twenties inside. All that white hair and wrinkled skin is just cladding. The old man with the oxygen tank was probably once a dashing heartthrob. That woman with distant rheumy eyes was once a mischievous young girl who played pranks on her friends. They were all young with love affairs and friends and parties and an endless life ahead of them..

and as I'm standing there, the weirdest thing happens. It's as if I can see them, the way they were. I can see their young, vibrant selves, rising up out of their bodies, shaking off their old-ness, starting to dance with each other to the music. They're all dancing the Charleston, kicking up their heels skittishly, their hair dark and strong, their limbs lithe again, and they're laughing, clutching each other's hands, throwing back their heads, revelling in it -

where the world sees a room full of the negativities of oldness - i see a room full of life, personality - of twenties guys & girls.