The Curse

1. Lunches eating in the sun are great mood boosters.
2. Letter writing is harder than one would think.
3. Naps are necessary.
4. Curses can be broken.

I have had a curse for most of my life. It has haunted me and has frustrated me for years. Although not a lot of things make me angry, this curse surely did. I felt it's wrath multiple times a year and without fail, it always won. Only on my high school graduation day did I finally win. What is it?

The newspaper. I have been in the newspaper about 20 to 25 times in my life, but something is always missing. Here are just a few instances.

1. My 9th birthday party was supposed to be at my house, but a fire broke out and of course, it got press. The newspaper interviewed the wrong girl (we were living with another family at the time).
2. My 3rd grade class took a trip to a museum and it was photographed for a local paper. I was one person away from getting into the photo.
3. My friend Libby, Bekka, and I were in a emergency response class and the paper came to take photos of our graduation from the program. The photo took up a fourth of the front page and it was just us in the picture. The caption? "Libby, Bekka, and other Oak Grove student..." Other Oak Grove student? Really? I was right there!

And it isn't just the newspaper. In my 6th grade yearbook, they listed my name as Mikky Kippen. Sure, I went by Niki for most of my middle/high school years, but that was just unacceptable. (I ended up being on yearbook staff for the next few years, in part to make sure I was listed correctly). This has happened with the local TV news program. My school was constantly in the news for volunteering, the flood that happens every year, or some important person came to talk. I was either in the next 3 seconds of film they cut out or my arm randomly appeared or I had arrived 2 minutes late to be filmed.

It was a terrible curse. When I was younger, it was pretty funny. But as I grew older, it just became disheartening. I got to the point that whenever something would come out, I would refuse to even look at for fear of not seeing myself or being mis-named or something along those lines. It felt like the world was out to get me. I never got too disheartened by things nor did I feel like anyone or anything was out to get me, but this surely felt like the one thing that was getting to me.

It wasn't until my graduation did it finally break. Graduation day, the newspaper was there to take a few shots for the front page of the local section. I was bound and determined to make sure my face would be fully there in the photo and my name was fully listed. And sure enough, front page of the local section was my face, dead center of the photo, with my name correctly spelled and listed. I was so ecstatic. That photo now takes up 2 pages of my scrapbook.

Fast-forward to a few week ago. I get a text from Megan asking if I would ever want to do an interview for her friend for the college's newspaper. I pretty much squealed with excitement. It was like the final piece of the curse would finally die. And sure enough, it finally died.

Here's the link to "Blogging on the rise", an article on how the popularity of blogging as increased, written by Meg Pittelko.

So what am I getting at? Yes, this whole post was just to rant and brag about the article, but also to tell you something: sometimes life has bizarre quirks that can irritate you to no end, but, like my friend Bekka just told me the other day, "You have to compromise with life. It's not out get you; you just have to compromise."

Enjoy the little rant, the article, and your life....it's all pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.

Peace!

-Nicole