14. Give $25 to a charity I have never donated to, before.
I've been thinking, for a while, that I wanted to give some money to Girls Write Now. And so, because Tayari Jones asked again this morning, I did.
I've been 25 for for nine months, and if all was going according to plan I should be three fourths of the way through the list. I'm not. I've already failed to write, everyday. I'm not trying enough new recipes, and haven't attempted to bake a loaf of bread in months. And I've dragged my feet, too, on giving away that $25.
The thing is, I'm busy. I'm working thirty two hours a week and commuting at least 45 minutes to do so. I have an internship and my thesis and a weekly writing group and a long distance relationship. I'm also broke. My job is a temporary gig and I live in a ridiculously expensive city and I'm a graduate student, studying writing and it is unlikely I'll ever make all that much money. So $25 is money I want. It's groceries, it's a few glasses of wine out with friends, it's stopping by my corner store to pick up a thing of cat litter and bag of coffee to make in the morning.
But the other thing is, people are always throwing me little donations and telling me I'm brilliant. Mostly this comes by way of money appearing in an envelope from my dad, some encouraging note scrawled on a photo from a magazine he liked. My mom pays for my cell phone bill, a monthly lifesaver, a gift that allows me just that much more breathing room. Friends spring for a beer, Jeff gets dinner and, yes, rarely does anyone do these things and follow it up with, "PS. You are amazing! The bees knees!" But I know it's there, implied, believed.
I met with my advisor last night, our first meeting since I turned in work to her. It's kind of an incredible feeling to have a writer, a real, published, smart, hard working writer take your work seriously. I felt that last summer and I feel that this summer, too. It's the kind of feeling I want all writers to have. Especially the girls, who can't look to the standard canon of literature and see themselves reflected back. I want them to see writers at work, and read beyond the typical line up of Orwell, Dickens, Hemingway, Miller and Salinger.
And I want them to write. I want them to write because I know what it's like to love to write and because they might write things that I'll read and love someday and I want them to write because being a teenager is awkward and difficult I don't want that to be the the reason they give up on writing. So I hope my donations help girls write. Right now. (Write now!) I can get by without the $25.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 1:50PM
Reader Comments (1)
Love Girls Write Now! The Feminist Press works with them, and they're a phenomenal group of people.
I know what you mean about wanting/needing that $25 for something else, but I do think it's important to give anyway (as you do too, obviously). My credit card gets charged $10 a month for a donation to A Room Of Her Own Foundation, and though it's a tiny amount it's still something, and I hope to make it bigger when I get back to earning regular money. We have to support the organizations and causes we care about, because who else will?