TenX9

Today was nuts. I worked for two hours in the morning and then to the dentist in Holywood for a 10:30 a.m. appointment. Then into Belfast city centre, rushing to catch the noon bus to Derry. I worked at the library in Derry for a few hours then had a quick catch up with Julie. Then to a bar, Sandino’s, where I was one of six storytellers ruminating on the topic of “Home.” TenX9 usually has nine storytellers, each allotted ten minutes to speak on that month’s theme. This event attracts about 200 people in Belfast. In Derry for the first time, they had only six speakers and maybe two dozen people in the audience.
I signed up to tell my story because I have always thought of Derry as home. Committing to spending ten minutes explaining why forced me to spend some time exploring this. I’ll spare you the 10 minute version and say that Derry people are friendly, funny, down to earth, and they live in a lovely corner of Northern Ireland. I felt more at home there than I did anywhere else I lived--I’ve lived in 15 homes, excluding college, so I’ve had a lot to compare it to.
I was excited about returning to Derry with my love letter to the city. But the night was fairly disappointing. Partly because the people who bookended me, Paul and Richard, are gifted storytellers and their stories were so much better than mine. I felt like they told stories, whereas I gave a lecture. It’s really humbling when you are a writer to see how unskilled you are when you step outside the narrow remit where you ply your trade (I’m really a technical writer, not a creative writer--if you read this blog, you may have noticed that!! LOL). I also felt pretty guilty because the ClimateAction100+ steering committee, of which I am coordinator, had a meeting tonight at 8 pm my time. I couldn’t do TenX9 and the committee. I chose TenX9 because the commitment predated my taking the job and learning about night meetings. I felt a bit of dereliction of duty. However, there’s another meeting in two weeks, and I’ll be on that call. And my predecessor continues in post until my Jan. 1 assumption of duties.
Anyway, Julie was there to tell me I was brilliant, so I pretended she was right.
Dec. 6