The following is some writing I did at the Elephant House in Edinburgh based on the prompt "The best thing I read this week." "Made famous as the place of inspiration for such writers as JK Rowling, who sat writing much of her early novels in the back room overlooking Edinburgh Castle."
There's a grammatical error and it's not even a complete sentence, but it's still the best thing I've read all week. I'm sitting in the Elephant House in Edinburgh, Scotland, where JK Rowling began to write Harry Potter. The room has the warm vibes of a cafe; I'm sipping lemon tea and busy groups of people chatter as indie music plays gently in the background. Candlelight flickers, illuminating the repeated images of elephants that decorate the place. Maybe I'm sitting in the same place the decorated author did, I hope to myself. Likely not: the menu says she sat in the back and I'm at the bar in the front. But still, sometimes her favorite seat would have to be taken, right? Harry Potter wasn't written in a day. The novelty of the place quickly wears off quickly. Yes, JK Rowling may have sat down near me in this very room 20 plus years ago, but she's not here now. It's really just a cafe that's allowed to be a bit pricier because of it's claim to fame. This leaves me to wonder about the reason why I still find myself at these places. I've been traveling a lot, fiding myself near the homes and tombs and hangout spots of famous people. Especially famous writers. Why? That brings me to the second best thing I've read this week, an old journal entry of mine: "There are towers of people existing before me on which I build my foundation to rise higher still, before gratefully giving my shoulders to yet another tier." I'm a young adult with my entire life ahead of me. People tell me I have so much potential, so my greatest fear is not fufilling that potential. I'm scared of failing, but we stand on the shoulders of giants. I am drawn to the places of people like JK Rowling because she did it right. She found her purpose and became successful. Maybe by putting myself near the places where the people who did things right actually were, I can do the same. It seems a silly thought, but while sitting in that Elephant House inspiration did strike and out spilled what you read now. So maybe, just maybe, places like that do have a magic power (pun intended). Maybe they provide the path to the shoulders on which we stand.
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Amy Golden
Amy will be spending the academic year at the University of Sunderland in England studying journalism. Archives
February 2018
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