I made it! The big 25!

I was going to post this yesterday, but it was a busy day! It's not every day that you turn 25! Yup, a quarter of a century.  What did I do? Well, mostly homework, not out of choice though. But it was fun still. Oh, and the super big news of the night--my brother got his mission call to North Carolina! We were all really excited about that. He'll leave at the end of May, which really isn't far away at all.

Today, since I had to do a bunch of research, I did some extra thinking. First of all, I really like Jack Zipes. The man has written so much on fairy tales and folklore, and I feel like a lot of what he writes just blows my mind. I was reading again about children's literature, and I had these two contrasting articles--one about the Italian author Gianni Rodari and his quest to change literature for children and empower the child with words, and the other about how, since the 1970's the market for children's literature has boomed and has become more and more controlled by corporations and a bottom line.

Sometimes, I seriously have to just sit back and wonder at how complex the world is. Isn't it amazing that two ideas so juxtaposed can be happening at the same time? I would say that there are many authors out there who seek to publish good books. I don't think they're trying to pick our pockets or turn us into the perfect consumer, and yet that is sometimes what happens, isn't it? Also, isn't it interesting to think that it is, in fact, adults who have defined children's literature. What if children actually want something drastically different than what we think they want? Wouldn't it be interesting to see a book of fairy tales or stories that actually was written by children? Maybe it exists already, and I just don't know about it, but I think someone should do it.

All of this just had me thinking about publishing a lot, especially since I've made up my mind to go to New York City to work my way into the publishing business. I love books, always have and always will, but it became evident to me today that I will have to do my best to try to publish good literature. Needless to say, it gave me some interesting food for thought, and it will likely continue to tumble about in my brain for some time.

Well, I'm not always this pensive, but there you have it. I'm 25 and full of some deep thoughts today. I think it's going to be a very good year.