My book?

I have been getting great comments and feedback on my blog. 99% of it is positive. A friend of mine who helps people determine how to publish their books and if necessary help them find an agent, has said more than once to me, “Where is your book?” Years ago, I toyed with the idea of writing a short memoir, entitled “An Ordinary Life.” As a white middle-class female in a tony Brooklyn neighborhood, I figured that my life was ordinary by definition. I always knew there would be a roof over my head, clothes to wear (and new clothes at the beginning of each school year), and food on the table. I had wonderful friends growing up and some are still friends today. I went to a private school, an outdoorsy sleep away camp in upstate NY, and even a private prestigious college. Now I realize that even though I was privileged, my life wasn’t all that ordinary. I had an afterschool job starting in 8th grade and I only left the job to head off to college (Sylvie refers to my employer and her husband, as Grandma and Grandpa). I had an allowance that required me to budget and do some of my own shopping for necessities. In my teens, I taught myself to cook. At 17 y.o., I spent the summer in Turkey on an exchange program run by AFS (American Field Service). None of my classmates had or did these things. I can still remember my 12th-grade homeroom teacher asking me twice what I did for the summer to make sure she heard correctly. Compared to my classmates my life wasn’t ordinary. Even in college, I spent a summer on an archeological dig in Tuscany, which wasn’t ordinary either. Most of my college friends worked over the summers or interned. Each time I did these out-of-ordinary things I had to do some adapting. While at sleep away camp I had to learn how not to miss home so much, especially my first summer (it did help that my older sister went to the same camp). In Turkey, I lived with a family in a part of Istanbul with no running water. In Tuscany, there was only hot water in the evening, so my morning shower was cold, and I mean cold. All of this has allowed me to understand the power of adaptability (a.k.a flexibility) which is super important at times like this. During this pandemic, everyone has been asked to change their routines whether it was going to the gym 3X a week (CLOSED), going to the barbershop one a month (CLOSED), or sitting with friends at their favorite bar (TAKE-OUT ONLY). The bar around the corner from where I lived offered to-go cocktails. And our children have had to learn to adapt to —schooling remotely, social distancing from friends and not being able to vintage/thrift shop (my daughter really missed this one). This to me is the silver lining of the pandemic, our children have learned the skill of adaptability. While I will no longer write my memoir because my life isn’t all that ordinary, I may publish a book of all my flower photos that I posted to document my almost daily walks. If I do, I’ll call it My Pandemic Garden.