Writing creatively to re-story the experience of waiting

ABSTRACT

Memories call out to us from our subconscious, revealing the stories that have yet to be told. This paper explores the memories of stories that resonate with the experience of waiting in middle age. It is written as a personal essay to capture the complex and nuanced emotions evoked by the aging process. Middle age can be felt as a vacuous space since many of life’s major milestones have already been met. Increased responsibilities can further trigger a mindless busyness that causes us to drift. We may subsequently wait mechanically and without purpose, as we drift from one extrinsic goal to another. Alternatively, we can learn how to wait with faith and hope as we hold out for what contains intrinsic value. Crafting our experiences of waiting through aesthetic language and literary works can help us to redefine waiting through a more receptive, vibrant, and growth-evoking lens so that it becomes a space for savouring life’s richness.

KEYWORDS:

• Craft
• writing
• waiting
• middle-age
• short stories

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joanne Yoo

Joanne Yoo is a senior lecturer at the School of International Studies and Education at the University of Technology Sydney. She has worked extensively across a wide range of subjects in the primary and secondary teacher education programmes. Joanne’s research interests include developing collaborative teaching partnerships, teaching and writing as an embodied practice, action research and arts-based research methodologies, such as narrative inquiry and autoethnography.