I was stuck in greater Los Angeles traffic yesterday and rather than let the creeping rage monster overwhelm my better nature, I went to my happy place...the world of THE UNSEEN. I geek out on world building, I get way too excited about something that Maeve is going to do in a book that I haven't finished yet (#2) and I get goose bumps thinking about all the Big Damn Heroics in #2 and #3.
After my talking car helpfully informed me, "TRAFFIC AHEAD, CHOOSE ALTERNATE ROUTE" (seriously, we are living in the future) for the 87th time, my mind wandered to why cryptids and YAs? THE UNSEEN is relatively new on the scene for me, I've had the kernel of a hard(ish) sci-fi novel floating around in my brain since my mid-twenties, so why didn't I write that first?
Because equal parts cryptids and teenagers.
I've been lucky enough to spend almost all of my career (there was a year that I didn't see the sun while working for a bank) working with 13 to 21 year olds. My first time teaching was in a community college, where I received a question that still haunts me to this day, "How are you qualified to teach this class?". No idea what my answer was other than heavy sweating and desperately hoping that a black hole would appear, sucking me into another dimension whereby I could leave a complicated code to my former self in order to call in sick that day. Outside of that particular moment, it's been pretty great. There is so much potential, belief, excitement, nerves and hope in the teenage years. They don't think they can change the world, they KNOW they can change the world. The world is open and the possibilities are endless. I've taught them, cried with them, advised them, coached them, laughed with them, been made fun of by them (this is a theme!), played with them, traveled with them and learned from them. I've sat through the absolute best moments and the crushingly awful moments as well, but through it all, my job has been to help them see that their future, indeed our future, is still unwritten.
How are teenagers connected to mythical beasts, legendary creatures and mythological animals around the world? Well, anyone who works with teenagers will read that one way and laugh but more importantly, it's less so the creatures and more the people that they attract. I love that there are large numbers of adults, all over the world, who spend their own time and money in the search for these creatures. Their belief, their hope is the same that I see in my students. They haven't been ground down to a nub of their younger selves, the world is still open and fresh with possibility. It's beautiful really.
I'm excited to learn more about this community, connect with the people in it and hopefully go out on a few expeditions myself.
So if the Census would consider you an adult, take a moment and remember yourself at 15. Who were you? Who did you want to be? Think and then take heart friends, it's never too late to become that person, to stand up and claim who you're supposed to be. It might be scary, it might be difficult but your dreams are worth it.
Have a good day friends.