U3A Writing: Creative Living
HELEN PICKUP tells a great wish-fulfilment tale about a woman who attends a Creative Living class and discovers she is a lot more positive than she thought she was!
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Now they say that all things come to those that wait. Well I am not so sure about that! I have waited a long time for the luxury of not having to work for a living. But there always seems to be a pile of bills to be paid and not enough money to pay them with.
I always thought my life would be different to my parents. Heavens knows they slogged hard enough through their working days. My dad never got to enjoy his retirement. He had a heart attack two weeks after finishing his job. My mother ekes out an existence on the pension. So is that is what its going to be like for me?. I bloody well hope not. Anyway I have decided that life is going to change for me and to that end I have enrolled in an evening class for adults. Its called Creative Living. I go tonight.
Boy, you should see my teacher! I don’t know why, but I thought it would be a woman, but no, it’s a spunky guy, about twenty something. Of course these days you cannot really tell anyone’s age. All the young things try to make themselves look older and all the older generation are trying desperately to look younger. I have given up worrying about it.
Anyway Angelo said - yes that’s his name, Angelo - we have to look at life in a different way. We have to start right now to write down what we want and visualize what we want in the next five years. So this is my list: I want to be able to buy a house, a new car, and have an overseas holiday, and maybe find a fella!
Can’t really see me getting any of that, but Angelo said we mustn’t think like that, or we wont get it. So I am writing this down to keep me thinking positive. Yes, that was the word he used, be positive!
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I have been going to class for a month now, and do you know I really feel different! Angelo just makes it all sound so easy. We have to sit around in a circle and have to say what we have been doing for the past week, and if we are happy about it. We all get to make suggestions or ask questions when each person has finished.
It doesn’t take me long to tell about my week, as I don’t really do anything different. Although last weekend I did call up my mother and have a chat. I don’t do that very often, as she makes me miserable when all she talks about is dying! But I tried out the being positive on her, and suggested she join a group or two, for retired people, where she could meet people of her own age. Of course she wasn’t having any of that, but I will try again, being positive I mean.
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Its six months now since I joined Creative Living, and would you believe it, I have a new job! Angelo suggested I look for a better paying job, and I went to the job centre and they found me one. I had to learn how to work a computer before I got it, but I actually rather like working on the computer. Its fun and doesn’t seem like work. So I have been able to make a start on paying off the bills.
Angelo also asked me out for a drink after class about two months ago, and then it was a dinner date. I told him he should find someone more his own age, but he said he liked mature women. Mature, now that sounds better than older doesn’t it?
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It will soon be a year since I joined the CL group; we call it that for short. Angelo and I are now an item! I know it seems ridiculous that such a good-looking man would want to become part of my life. We go out such a lot now. When we first got together, he took me to a disco and although I found it rather loud and noisy, I did enjoy it. So now we go every weekend.
I have had to buy new clothes, because all mine looked so old fashioned and Angelo is such a sharp dresser. And he is so good in bed. Taught me all sorts of different things, but I won’t go into that. The best part is, that as my job is now paying -well, yes, I have had two wage increases this year - Angelo and I can now look for a house.
We have already traded my old heap of a car for a sports car, it has a soft top, and we can open it up in the summer. I like that. Angelo likes to organize everything, and boy, I sure did need someone to organize me. I still attend the CL group every Wednesday night. There are not quite as many people going now, but I think most of them have changed over the year, but none of them are as lucky as me, because I can have Angelo every night!
