Here we are in the third week of my 42 Things to Write About Challenge. I wanted to take a little bit of a different route this week and this one is a little more difficult. Rather than write about something you’ve done, today’s challenge is to write about yourself. Hopefully no one gets scared away by this week’s topic. You know, I thought it would be easy when I selected it, but when I sat down to write it out, it suddenly became a lot more difficult to do. Before we get into it, I just want to clarify that I answered this week’s question with how I see myself, so please don’t tell me that I’m wrong. Doing this was a lot more personal than I thought it would be, so I hope I don’t come off the wrong way. I hope you’ll still participate this week and if so, please leave your response in the comments section. Thanks! 🙂
Here’s the topic for Week 3:
“Describe yourself in the third person – your physical appearance and personality – as though you were a character in a book.”
Then there was Colleen, who was every kind of average. At 5’4″, she was average height with layered, dark brown hair that sat right at her shoulders. Her eyes were an ordinary brown; her nails short from biting them, perhaps out of anxiety, perhaps out of boredom. She was slim, but not super skinny, and her body was that of an Italian woman who exercised hard to fight the genetically destined battle of the big butt and thighs. She weighed more than she looked and people were always surprised to find out that her goal weight was higher than people assumed she weighed. She sometimes joked that her biggest advantage on a game show like Survivor would be her middle-of-the-pack appearance. She was pretty enough, but not so gorgeous to ever be the prettiest girl in the room, and that was her advantage. Average is non-threatening and she hated competition, so that suited her just fine. The only thing not average about her was her work ethic and drive. When she started something, she had to finish it, no matter how late, how much her muscles ached from concentration, how frustrated she got. When she started something, she had to see it through or else she considered it a failure. Helping people made her feel useful and feeling useful made her like herself.
Some described her personality as bubbly, others as excessive. She talked a lot and that could get her in trouble, as there were a lot of times that she felt she should’ve put her foot in her mouth. She would recount moments like those in her head for days and weeks afterwards, sometimes telling herself aloud to shut up while cringing. She felt in her best form when she could write how she felt and what she wanted to say. Writing was a medium where should could hit backspace or delete, where she could reread and make sure her message was as intended, where she could have someone else look it over to make sure she was on the right track. She was forever grateful that her husband initially got to know her through written communication. She was easily excitable and that was both good and bad. It was bad when she focused that excitable energy into the little things and let them get to her, like a comment made on Facebook or a red light when she had some place to be. But when she was excited about something good, she was passionate about it and felt that she could use that energy to do anything she wanted to do. All she wanted to do was feel satisfied and content at the end of each day. She never went to bed without thinking about what she would do tomorrow. But most people share those qualities. She was, by all means, quite average. Maybe not forgettable, but average none-the-less.
