Under Construction: Brussels, the European Union, and Me
This post was inspired by the Write on Edge RemembeRED writing prompt:
“Imagine your life, or a part of your life, as a title and tagline. That’s it. Give us the title, and give us the tagline.”
You know I can’t leave it at that. This prompt and my oldest nephew’s recent arrival in France has me thinking of my own study abroad experience in 1994. I have a whole separate post brewing about this. Here I’ll just say the whole city felt as if it were under construction. The fountain in the picture above did not exist when I arrived. I walked by a mess of cranes building something day after day. During the last two weeks of my stay, the cranes were replaced by a small park complete with trees, benches, and that fountain, ironically (defiantly?) crane-like.
I read an interview with Helen Mirren recently and she said she’d been approached to write her memoirs. She refused and said “What would I call them? I’m a unfinished work of art.”
well done
Thanks, Lance. I love Helen Mirren! Although why couldn’t she call her memoir “Unfinished Work of Art?” That would be good. I’d read it.
Not only is it catchy, but apparently you’ve drawn a comparison to Helen Mirren, which kicks ass.
Thanks! I went the easy route of picking just a small part of my life. Summarizing the whole thing felt too hard (and is sort of halfway done on the old blog anyway, although I’m toying with a new blog tagline).
My husband did study abroad, and I always wished I would have done it. How exciting that you got to watch something take shape while you were there.
I missed my boyfriend, but I’m so glad I did it. I can’t believe it was 18 years ago.
A good friend of mine has a daughter leaving for Italy on Saturday for her semester abroad. I am insanely jealous!!!!
I loved your tagline…it was perfect !
Thanks! My nephew’s semester in France has me jealous too. I loved how you got cupcakes into your tagline!
Enjoyed this tagline. Would love to read more of your study abroad experience.
Thanks, Lindy. I think with my nephew being in France this semester that I will write more about my time abroad.
It wasn’t immediately obvious to me where your entry was. I had to look all over your page before I finally recognized it was on top, barely noticeable in Italics.
Great tagline. I wanted to read all about the construction and all of your construction metaphors! I was disappointed there wasn’t more.
Then, I had to look back at the picture to see the fountain. I had scanned the photo and thought the fountain was a crane. I think it is ironically defiant, lol
The journal I had to write to get college credit for my internship was one big painful construction metaphor!
I love how there’s an actual crane in the background of the photo of the weird crane-shaped fountain…META!
It was hard to take a picture in that city without there being a crane somewhere.
Very interesting. I love that Lance thought of Helen Mirren. What a lucky lady you are!
Thanks, I was impressed you came up with three!
This is great!! The “under construction” part is so fitting, so true of all of us. And the tagline just has me wanting more. Can’t wait to read more about your study abroad.
PS – Very cool fountain. Ironically defiant, indeed.
I made a key life decision during my semester abroad RE: grad school and looking at my nephew at that point in his life makes me step back and say “holy crap, I was young when I set those wheels in motion.”
I adore that even when completed, it’s still under a construction. There’s a metaphor there.
I tend toward the pained metaphors sometimes! But the construction over there was crazy prevalent! My husband and I went to Belgium in 2009, and the theme of that visit was “undergoing renovation.”
I found it hard to leave it at only the title. How lucky to travel abroad.
Thanks. I might end up writing more. I seem to be re-living all of my college memories as my nephew experiences college.
I really liked that. I wondered where you would go with this prompt, and you hit it on the head.
Great job. I love how much you can learn about a person in just a few short words.