My last semester of college I needed precisely one more credit hour to remain a full-time student. I ended up finding a single credit hour writing course I thought I could use as a way to freshen up my writing since I’d dropped off on my journaling and creative/leisure writing to pay more attention to my capstone. But taking so many months off writing really got me in a writing slump. It’s just like how a muscle atrophies if you stop working it out – my writing muscle had become weak and feeble. The class I took to simply fill the time requirement ended up being one of the classes I’m most grateful for in my whole college career.
The class was led by a grad student who became more like a friend than a professor by the end of the year. She encouraged me to look at wiring prompts on Pinterest pages to ease myself back into the writing process and get my creative juices flowing again. Over the past month, I’ve caught myself in this writing slump once again. I remembered her advice and found the prompt; write about something you can’t explain in the form of “I cannot explain [blank]”. I found that sitting in my bed on my laptop and basically word-vomiting onto the page helped me not only get my writing muscles back in shape, but it also cleared my mind.
I Cannot Explain
I cannot explain why I refuse to return home if I left something behind. I once heard it throws off divine-timing and I could never un-hear that.
I cannot explain how the slightest bit of turbulence in a plane makes my stomach drop to my feet and my face remains red for hours after. I’ve only ever flown four times.
I don’t know why I must finish every last drop of a water bottle and crunch it once I’m finished. And why I don’t think I’ve ever drank a full can of pop.
I must never go to bed with socks on or let the pounds of covers encapsulate my feet.
For some reason I must never shower during a thunderstorm or clip my fingernails at night. Though I’m sure its an old wives tale I put so much thought into that it eventually stuck.
I can’t explain why some nights I sleep like a baby and others I’m up every five minutes to pee. I can’t explain why sometimes I welcome the silence and other times am so afraid I have to leave the TV on all night long.
I’ll never understand why I switch what side of the bed I sleep on. Theres no rhyme or reason, I find myself getting in on different sides without the slightest idea why.
I cannot explain why I use certain emojis with one person and a completely different group of them with another. This idea used to drive me up a wall when I watched true-crime documentaries and the police could decipher when a criminal had been posing as a victim through the style of their text messages alone.
I cannot explain why I always ask for and finish the extra side of wasabi but can’t handle a single serving of Flamin-Hot-Cheetos.
I cannot explain the feeling of re-watching a movie or TV show that gives me so much joy and feeling of comfort. Or why I look forward to re-watching something while I’m in the middle of watching it for the first time.
I’ll never know how I convinced myself to enjoy clementines by eating six and a row while watching an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I couldn’t stand the texture and convinced myself if I ate enough of them in a row I’d get used to it – and I did.