Appreciating the Old: Why Upgrade All the Time?

12/2/2016

I would love to sit and write there, with the kids playing on the grass, and my husband sleeping somewhere.

Today, I was reflecting on building up my best qualities. Everybody wants to change and improve nowadays. It’s like we want to upgrade ourselves or refresh our status, in real life. I am not saying people shouldn’t change for the better, if they have an addiction or a nasty habit, which I believe everyone has to some degree.

Instead, why not develop our best qualities? Like those things called virtues no one really talks about anymore? I was reminded of this when a friend commented on how generous I am. I suppose that is true, but lately, I haven’t had much time to be generous. I would like to focus on the best aspects of myself, like the part of me that loves to read or the one that loves to cook. The one that loves to pray constantly in a way that isn’t rushed.

We are so focused on what is wrong with us that we neglect to focus on what is right with us, and we all have good in us. We just forget in the din of daily tech and just the constant chatter. Turn off that shitty internal critic.

I was told by a priest recently to carry the monastery in my heart. I love that image; it reminds me of the picture above.

That will be my goal this Advent season: To really find inner peace and not let the fucked up world mess with that. I also want to focus on developing three characteristics that I appreciate about myself. That is all.

Anyway, I haven’t written much, but I did re-purpose my other blog: Border-ed Writing and Teaching. I want to focus on the teaching of creative writing and the themes I use in class. That way, I will give myself some space to reflect and also post resources. Blogger is interesting because it doesn’t connect as well to social media like Weebly, but it does a great job of showcasing other blogs. I enjoy other designs.

I have also been exploring other professional Weebly sites, and besides that dated picture of myself, I am still OK with the old school design. Not everything has to be so damned flashy.

Here’s to appreciating vintage and the best qualities in yourself. Fuck all these other pressures and be the best human being you are, right now.

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Dr. Jesú Estrada,
Chicago, IL

I grew up on the outskirts of Yuma, AZ, close to the Cocopah reservation. Because I was ever-bored, I became an avid reader of Spanish comic books and anything in English. Then I moved onto Steinbeck and Stephen King and now read international authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Atwood, and Marouf. I also read a lot of coming of age fiction.

I have been writing stories in both Spanish and English since I was six years old. My fiction and poetry focus on working class issues, primarily about laborers in the Southwest. I also write non-serious fiction, like zombie fiction (I was into it before it got popular with the Walking Dead series, which I love) and dabble in magical realism with a fusion of cuentos and folklore.

I have a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University, a Masters Degree in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Arts from Northern Arizona University. I have also taught creative writing, and will do so, spring 2017. Currently, I live in Chicago and teach full-time at Harold Washington College to an amazing student population.

More about me. I am happily married, been so for over eight years, and have a fabulous seven-year-old who makes my life phenomenal: He too is starting to write short stories. I recently had a second baby, Simona, which put a temporary set-back on the publication of my first book, but made my life infinitely more wonderful. My husband is also incredibly supportive, and I have enlisted him to market whatever I do that is worth marketing.

That damned itch just won't let me be, so I'm back to my original love of words.