Giggling

Kerry is an important lady in my novel. I want the other characters to not fully appreciate this. As I attempt to design these intricate details into their interactions, it makes me wonder who I forget in my own life. Who don't I fully notice?

Perhaps it's no surprise that I find it tricky to recall who would fit in such a category. After all, I don't notice them as much as I should.

Let me talk about Kerry a bit more - maybe something will come to me in the meantime.

Think! "Look out for Cyclists" ad.
You don't notice a moonwalking bear if you're not looking for one.
She's the younger sibling. She's young - just got out of university. Now she's a qualified nurse, and the world is her oyster. She's cheerful and she laughs a lot - a high-pitched, breathy giggle. She giggles about amusing things, because they amuse her; and she giggles about things that aren't amusing at all, because they amuse her anyway. I'm sure you can empathise. I'm sure you can recall those times when you're having a discussion and you stumble upon an audible space within it. It lasts longer than a simple pause to take a breath. It's an awkward space. One where you both/all sense that it would be optimal for that space to be filled with something.

Well, into that, Kerry would bring her soft giggle, where most would simply tolerate the pause, and perhaps come up with something else to say.

So in the novel, Kerry starts to grow out of her habitual giggling, but nobody really notices. And with that, I think I will stop talking about her before I give too much away (I may also end up not including this in the finished story, I don't know).

Anyway, back to my life. Back to the real world. I can now recall quite a few people like that. Fellow students, people that I have met here, who are changing rapidly; maturing, but I haven't fully grasped it. I think of Tobi, Joe and Joel, to name a few. If they read this, they may know who they are - I hope they don't mind me naming them. I thought coming up with alias names would be over the top. I can see their maturity now, the difference a year in Southampton has made. It's quite remarkable. I'm so glad for them right now.

University is a place where there's so much space to grow. It feels like you're almost at the end of a middle-class conveyor belt. When you, a profitable, degree-wielding benefit to society, eventually appear at the end of the belt, you will finally have to decide which path to follow. As we come of age, we stumble upon the realisation that we have a lot of control over who we will be. We have to decide what we'll live for. Therefore, we change.

SI

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