alllllllllllll about me

In teacher's college, we were asked to design an All About Me...something. Something that could stand and serve as a representation of who we are/ were: our interests; our history; family and friend info; our favourite foods; our favourite movies; our most preferred toothpaste...you know, all the usual, typical stuff. And we could make it into anything we wanted: a poster, a video, a book, a power point presentation, a diorama...you get the idea. I came across mine the other day and flipped through it. And...its nice. I mean, the pictures are pretty, glossy (no white borders for this girl); the text is all typed and printed in varying fonts, each reflecting the subject and tone of the page (obviously); the colour scheme of one corresponding page complements the other; the writing is well-thought out...witty yet informative and well-worded, one could even say ;). I must say, I did a good job. Except....

...lets face it: you can't really create a poster, or a video, or a book, or a power point presentation, or a diorama about yourself and for public consumption and expect it to be accurate. Especially when your audience is a group of people who you've only known for a few weeks and will probably never see again come June.

We all have our stories; ones that follow us around no matter where we go or who we meet; ones that can [scarily] be summed up in a few sentences. I learned this this past summer while Liana and I were in Sicily (sidenote: I think we, as individuals, learn the most about oursevlves in the company of strangers). For instance, my story/ standard greeting when making small-talk with the all-too-friendly locals (sidenote #2: I love Italy with all of my heart) was always the same: "I'm Melissa. I'm from Toronto, Canada, but I've been living in London, England for the past little while, teaching". Simple, right? Yup. Has that always been my story? Nope. When I started teacher's college it was, "Hi, I'm Melissa. I studied History and Cinema Studies at Uof T and have been working in insurance for the past little while". Simple, right? Yup.

See, these are the stories we automatically tell. They're not even stories, really--they're summaries. Now, don't get me wrong, everything that I've said above--and all that I've said in the past but haven't written here-- represents a BIG part of who I am. Teacher's college was a pretty heavy year; moving to and living in London was a life-changing experience, both in regards to how I see the world and who I've learned I am as an INDIVIDUAL within it--when seperated from my family, my friends and all of my familiars. I guess what I'm getting at is that many of our stories get forgotten, most of the time. This isn't always a bad thing, of course: we can't always say and tell everything. But, that being said, sometimes its nice to stop and think back not only to the stories you tell others, but to what those stories tell you; what they reveal to you. To put it a bit more cheesily, to think about what you've learned from them--about yourself, about others, about a city, about a culture...about Bob ;)....about Everything. And Nothing.

All About Me. If I could put it ALLLLL down on paper, in a neat and organized way; if I could make me linear and comprehensible and easy to follow; if I could write me? But I couldn't.

I won't.