Thanksgiving Blog Hop - Hosted by Brenda Drake

This Blog Hop is hosted by the awesome Brenda Drake, who very nicely asked us to join her on this journey of thanksgiving. Just post pictures or thoughts of thanks from now until Thanksgiving, hop around during the month, and get to know each other. It seemed cool, so here we are. 

I’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving. It’s not a Holiday where I’m from. I confess, though. I’ve always found it intriguing. I know (unless TV shows are full of bullshit, which would promptly shatter a life-long illusion) that there are parades most people watch on TV, and you all gather and eat turkey and mashed potatoes (that last one I learned from Friends. Remember that episode in which Monica had to make at least four different kinds? I always remember that, for some reason.).

 

 

That’s how your Holiday comes across for us down here.

I wasn’t quite sure what was it that you Americans where giving thanks for, but there’s virtually nothing (pardon the pun) a quick googling can’t help you with.

And googling it is exactly what I did. Did you know in Canada they celebrate Thanksgiving, too? I sure didn’t. Different history than the more internationally known American tradition, but they also do it.

Ooookay, back to the topic.

This year, in honor of all the American friends I made during some contests I participated in, I’ll celebrate Thanksgiving with you. At least on my blog. You’ll have to eat the turkey and stuff for me because I’m pretty sure they don’t even sell that bird around here. But I’m with you in spirit, my friends.

I’m thankful for the internet. Weird, huh? Maybe this crazy girl from the end of the world didn’t understand your holiday after all, you wonder, no?

Sure I did.

I’m sure some of you would agree with me on this one, though. Writing can be a lonely business. Sometimes I let my sister talking to herself because I suddenly had a breakthrough idea. This idea is gonna fix that one problem that got me stuck for weeks. How could I not let the world hanging to capture it before I lose it? It’s just not done. But then, after I’m reading that one brilliant scene I finally got around to write I notice. My sister is long gone. I’m sure she’ll forgive me when I become a best-selling author and cart her off to Paris like I promised her ages ago, but the point remains. We sacrifice time with our loved ones to write. At least I do.

And here’s where the internet comes from. If it weren’t for it, I wouldn’t even know how is it that a novel gets published. Of all authors out there constantly giving interviews and things, something that Stephanie Meyer said once got stuck in my head:

“There’s ton of information online if you are interested in publishing a novel.”

And then I discovered that info is not only found about publishing it. You get people supporting you that are going through the same issues you’re having, down to that coffee addiction that makes you grumble if not fulfilled or that crazy pair of pajamas that become your uniform on weekends. And it makes you feel connected.

That connection with the world that I had to put on hold with my family and friends gets not restored, because nothing compares to quality time with a loved one, but it definitely becomes something that helps you push harder to take steps forward. And believing that some day (hopefully not too far away) it’ll all be worth it.

An argument could be made that it’s not really the internet, but the fellow writers that I should be grateful for, but as I have already mention in previous posts (you are probably rolling your eyes at me now) I live far, far away from people who could understand my inner musings. I mean, I’m sure there are great future novelists in Paraguay right now (like Augusto Roa Bastos, for example. The guy was a genious novelist and a fellow Paraguayan.) But people speak spanish around me. Other than my parents, siblings and a few friends, no one knows I write in english. So how could they provide any comfort? And it’s not their job to go along with my crazy plans (Except my mother. It sort of falls under her job description.) If I lived next to fellow english-writing writers (that wasn’t redundant at all) I’m sure the internet wouldn’t be such a crucial invention for me. But I don’t. And there are no immediate plans for that to change, so the internet it is.

That being said, of course I’m grateful for y’all. See? I’m even using “y’all”, something that again, if the TV is to be trusted, is a very American way to say “you all”. I’m no one to judge how you make your language your own because God knows, Paraguayans speak an unofficial dialect that most spanish-speaking people from other countries have trouble following. (It’s because we have actually 2 official languages [spanish and guarani] and have a tendency of mixing them up quite often. It’s called “jopara”. Bet you didn’t know that. See how cultured the internet makes everyone?)

So, to wrapped up.. the internet is something to be grateful for. So I am.