Fresh on the heels of the last Instagram Challenge post is Nerd in the City/Sand’s newest installment…

 

For those unfamiliar with which Bradshaw this challenge is referencing, I will save you the Google search and fill you in.

 

Carrie Bradshaw is one of the main characters from the super popular (when it aired) HBO show Sex and the City. She is writer (sex and relationship columnist), fashonista, friend and proud New York City gal. In her thirty somethings when the show begins, each episode (narrated by her) plays out the story of she and her friends as they navigate dating, relationships, jobs and being single in the city which perfectly fills the paragraphs of her column.

***For more, you should probably watch the show itself***

 

I’ve known that CB, although fictional, was a kindred spirit since I first found her in my early twenties. At the time I was re-entering the world after a failed marriage (at 20) and looked at her life with all the wild eyed anticipation a country girl like me could muster.

I craved her eccentric style, her apartment, the courage to enter and re-enter the dating scene, and the endless breakfasts, dinners and drinks with her girlfriends.

***I could go into more detail but I’ll save that for future posts***

Ever since our introduction, I’ve called that internal creative narration in me, my inner Carrie Bradshaw. So, as you might have already guessed, I am super excited about this challenge.

I will go ahead and tell you that I will probably #writeit way more than I #wearit (because I am still working on that fashionista part of me) but if not, I guess we can all be surprised 😉

Without any further adieu…here we go…

On High School

 

Please excuse the photo quality but all of my high school photos were before digital photography was a thing…so…this is the only photo I had on my cell phone (from a photo I took of said photo).

So yeah, that’s me, 17 and ready to graduate from West Stanly High School in North Carolina. Haha, you can see the barn and hay bails in the photo. Back then the only concept of the city were the things I read in the magazines or saw on TV. The internet was kind of a thing, but not like it is now.

High school for me was actually a pretty great time. Believe me I realize that I was fortunate to have just typed that. I had a good rapor with almost everyone so most of my classes were fun and I made good grades. My favorite subjects were (and still are) mostly in the arts. Drama, music (I hung out with the band but never played), English and history were what I lived for then.

Those were the days I could get as lost in a book as I did the woods in my back yard (ok, who am I kidding, I knew those woods pretty darn well). I found fantasy for the first time and began writing it too. I wish I still had some of those stories to prove it. Fiction was all I had on the brain back then. Between reading, writing and the stage, I never dreamed of doing anything other that exploring fiction…there are many days in the present that are often like that too.

Being active in the church since a young age, most of my weekend activities involved the church community and the friends I had there, which included my brothers so we didn’t have friends over to our house often unless it was the youth group (my grandparents lived next door and had a pool and grass volleyball court behind their house). It may have seemed unusual not to have sleepovers and weekend plans with friends but it worked for us, I guess.

Speaking on friends, one of the staples in Carrie Bradshaw’s life are her friends so it is here that I must include someone very special…

It may surprise you all to learn but I actually played a sport in high school and I loved every minute of it.

The girl taking a knee in the photo is my friend Lancie…from New York interestingly enough. Aside from the incredible bond I share with some of my cousins and Aunts/Uncle, she is my oldest friend.

The first couple of years we knew eachother, she lived on the street I grew up on but from the moment we hit the field together, we became “us”. Between school, soccer practice and games, Lancie showed me how to shop at the thrift stores for fashions I didn’t even know I’d like. Cue the plaid pants and bowling shirts…the 70’s

We had several classes together in HS and even though we talked all the time and shared desks next to each other, we wrote eachother notes in between class. It was during one of those note exchanges that we started dreaming some of the same dreams.

We were going to go to the same college in the some beautiful mountain county and play soccer…then we were going to play professionally and if husbands/kids came along, then so be it. We were going to move to Ireland and work the farmland (I’d need lots of help with that) when we were worn out of soccer. What a dream ❤

 

 

Her house was the only house, aside from my own that I felt truly safe and comfortable in that way that you can let your entire guard down and be yourself. In all the goodness around me back then and there was a LOT of it, that was an extra special gift.

 

Life happened and we didn’t go to college together but when we saw eachother on breaks, I’d never be so happy to see someone.

 

Fast forward to 2014…between colleges, marriages, divorces, moves and job changes, we always found eachother, right where we left each other and this time, we found ourselves in Ireland…

 

This looks like a just another great picture (thanks to Ash the photographer) to most but to me its the culmination of our friendship. I don’t know how there were footprints both behind and in front of us but I love that. Without trying the photo looks aged, like we are (not OLD, just aged) and that plaid jacket takes me right back to those thrift store pants.

We have shared so many laughs, cries, embraces and trips together, I don’t know how else to end this post about High School with out saying, thank you Lancie, for being the first lifelong friend! (and my Miranda, though I don’t know if you’d agree)

 

 

The true beauty of blogging is that it’s your place to do what you do and I am so grateful for this place and space to do The Bradshaw Challenge.

I am not looking down from a brownstone apartment onto a busy city street but the view in my life isn’t bad at all…

So, maybe the goal now, at 34, isn’t to be Carrie Bradshaw BUT I perhaps through this challenge I’ll be able to echo certain (I said certain) parts of her story and continue to create the me I want to be 🙂 That’d be pretty cool, huh!??

 

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For Lizzie’s website, click The Bradshaw Challenge box at the beginning of the post and/or follow her on Instagram @nerdinthesand

Don’t forget to follow along and see if we #writeit or #wearit

Until next time,

CC