We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end we’re all storytellers. Writing Challenges help you push your…
We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end we’re all storytellers. Writing Challenges help you push your writing boundaries and explore new ideas, subjects, and styles.
To participate, read the challenge instructions and write at least one post in response. Tag your post with DPchallenge and include a link to this post to generate a pingback. Make sure your post has been specifically published in response to this challenge. We might just highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed on Fridays, or in our quarterly newsletter.
No matter how you shake it, it happens to all of us: we grow older. As our age changes, so does our perspective. This week, we’re asking you to take a look at those little numbers that often mean so much.
Everything Changes
A professor of mine once told me that each time he read Marcel Proust‘s In Search of Lost Time, it took on a different meaning. The way the book delves into memory and the passing of time, he explained, resonated differently depending on what experiences you yourself had been through over the years. While I could never reproduce his unique zeal for the father of the modern novel, I admired the sentiment.
For the longest time, well after I’d moved beyond my teenage years, I still automatically told people I was sixteen when they asked my age. Clearly, I was still young enough that asking my age wasn’t a rude question, but I was by no means in my mid-teens. Mentally, however, I hadn’t caught up with just how old I actually was.
Then something shifted. We often emphasize age as a number, a calculation of the days, months, and years we’ve been awake and living. Yet, as the saying goes, our age is also a mental state, a series of milestones that remind us of where we’ve been, and where we’re going.
Just A Number
For this week’s writing challenge, we’re asking you to explore what age means to you. Is the the loss of youth, or the cultivation of wisdom? Do things get better as you grow older, or worse? There are many ways to interpret age, often depending on your relationship with the passing of time.
Need some help getting started? Use the suggestions below as a jumping off point for your own posts on age and aging:
- Age feels all the more poignant because, let’s face it, time doesn’t last forever. What if you never aged, or if you were immortal? Would you choose either if you could?
- Write us a synopsis of your memoir. What are some significant milestones in your life? Which age was the best, and which was the worst?
- Do you think young people face different challenges today? What shifts have you seen in youth culture, from your own experience all the way to your grandchildren’s experience?
- For our fiction writers, cultivate a character. Through your imagination, pinpoint a common theme in his or her life, and show us how your character’s perspective changes as he or she grows older.
For the truly adventurous, we challenge you to try hitting two challenges with one stone, er, post. Combine this week’s photo challenge on perspective with your writerly musings on age, youth, and how your perspective changes as you grow older. We’re looking forward to hearing your wizened take on this week’s theme!
The golden years which were taken away: http://stephaniemartinglennon.com/2014/03/12/middle-march/
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Pingback? Can’t I just post here? I’m new to this.
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If you copy the link of this page – when viewing your post on the edit page setting you can type in a few words like ‘Weekly Challenge’, highlight them, then on the menu bar at the top you see a small icon that looks like the link of the chain. click that then paste in this link. Save the change and you’re done. (some of your text needs to be highlighted at the same time you save it).
if you’ve already figured out ping backs or knew this already then good stuff!
It’s worth doing (IMO) so other bloggers (like me!) can read your entry!
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Loved the topic. Thank you for the inspiration.
http://teoteodora1048.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/sweet-16/
Feedback very much appreciated! Enjoy 😀
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Thank you for the inspiration. Here’s my post
http://klamiot.wordpress.com/?p=1202&preview=true
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If you fancy a light-hearted take on the ageing process (with a musical twist) feel free to have a read of this:
http://charliecastor.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/a-soundtrack-to-the-ageing-process/
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Enjoyed thinking about the gold in golden years and how many years it takes to achieve something. Loving the scope of the posts here. Lots of great reads.
http://bit.ly/OonrBd
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My contribution for the Weekly Challenge
http://onehundredthousandbeatsperday.com/2014/03/13/dp-challenge-how-i-made-myself-old/
Cheers.
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Exactly a month after I turned 20
http://markie1302.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/weekly-writing-challenge-golden-years-13-03-14/
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I accept. I am already challenged. I’m too smart and way too good looking, so another challenge can’t hurt. Did I mention my humility? Part one is published.
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My Golden years post explains what occurred in my life to change the way I observe my birthdays. http://joeowensblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/weekly-writing-challenge-golden-years/
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In this post you can see why maybe I’ve always been too old for concerts:
http://elizabethmerrittabbott.com/2014/03/12/ingrid-michaelson-wins/
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Amazing how much I’ve learned over the years. 40 is so much better than 20. http://springsforward.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/40-things-i-wish-i-had-known-then-on-the-occasion-of-my-40th-birthday/
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Hey you know what is fun!!! RECESS
here is my submission:
http://uponarival.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/recess/
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Age is not about the number but what is going on during those years.
https://lifeinabasket.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/waiting-for-the-golden-years/
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Erica, here’s my contribution. http://wp.me/p2z15F-hh
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This will definitely be an interesting challenge. Can’t wait to see what creative ideas people come up with! May give this challenge a try….
Perhiasan mutiara lombok
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This was delightful, even as a half-centenarian!
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Here is my response to Weekly Writing Challenge: Golden Years Hope you all enjoy!
Getting The Picture
http://wp.me/p4q8yx-R
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Ment to send mine yesterday but here’s my shot at “AGE” http://tatieey.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/numbers/
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http://risingrave28.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/ludic-memories-memoriam/
Well, well, well. Here is my take 😀
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“I’m just swimming au naturelle,” he lied smoothly.
http://babsjeheron.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/im-just-swimming-au-naturelle-he-lied-smoothly/
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http://whymatters.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/why-this-blog/
I had to post my side Why this Blog. A half year ago my few on the world changed drastic and that is the reason i write the blog and make pictures. Mostly to capture the good moments that i experience.
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my city’s golden years! 🙂
http://wildandfreeandme.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/araw-ng-davao-2014/
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I had a lot of thoughts on this one, it was definitely a challenge! http://krstokely.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/the-secret/
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Getting mine in just under the wire… How old do you feel inside? How do childhood messages effect you? http://becomingvivid.com/dont-speak-until-you-are-spoken-to/
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I’m still learning all the ins and outs of blogging. Not sure how to pingback, but here’s my weekly writing challenge:
http://th3bak3rman.wordpress.com/out-of-the-kitchen/comment-page-1/#comment-25
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Here is my post for this challenge.
http://nonlinearcompilations.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/then-now/
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Here is my entry for this challenge: http://haphazardlyharpingon.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/weekly-writing-challenge-the-golden-years/
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And one last entry, right down to the deadline: http://polymathically.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/the-inevitability-of-age/
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My entry – The immortal life of my growing self –
http://peopleandcafes.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/the-immortal-life-of-my-growing-self/
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