Like many others, one of favorite pastimes is to read. I mostly read novels and listen to audiobooks, but every now and again I will read a wonderful short story that I never can forget.<br /> <br /> One of my past College English assignments was based on a short story that pops into my head every so often, it was entitled &acirc;€˜The Yellow Wallpaper&acirc;€™. My thesis on this particular short story was: &acirc;€œThe subject (Jane) who seems to be suffering from postpartum depression has morphed herself into the stooped woman behind the ugly wallpaper because she needed some sort of escape due to her husband and family suffocating and imprisoning her. I believe that Jane (the subject) had gone &acirc;€˜quite mad&acirc;€™.&acirc;€ I sent my point of view to one of my aunts and cousins who had read and did a paper on this same short story in University years ago and they were delighted that I too chose this same short story to do my assignment on.<br /> <br /> Every now and again if I come across ugly wallpaper, I just want to run my hand along it as I walk around the room and pretend I&acirc;€™m walking over a passed out person just for kicks or to see who, if anyone recognizes what I&acirc;€™m doing and may have also read the story. I&acirc;€™m not actually making fun of the story rather than appreciating it-well that&acirc;€™s my view anyway.<br /> <br /> Another recent short story that has captured my attention is by Patrick O&acirc;€™Flaherty entitled &acirc;€œReturn to laughter&acirc;€ from his book &acirc;€˜A Small Place in the Sun&acirc;€™-book was given to me by my Godmother. I was so pleasantly surprised by the outcome; it makes you really think about life and how sometimes we as human beings have predetermined thoughts and views on others but they may not always be correct.<br /> <br /> The story begins with the main character (another Jane), who is a teacher and having relationship troubles at home, trying to escape the school for lunch unnoticed. She went to her favorite quiet restaurant, began reminiscing of the good old days and when it all began to go wrong. She was feeling trapped in a relationship that was unhealthy and basically dragging her down.<br /> <br /> &acirc;€œMine own tears do scald like molten lead&acirc;€-King Lear<br /> <br /> While she was mulling over her thoughts of unhappiness, another teacher who was highly energetic and annoying to most, sat down and joined her without being invited. The other teacher &acirc;€˜Miss Farmer (Faith)&acirc;€™ was so distracting and entertaining, especially to the other patrons, Jane momentarily forgot about her own troubles. Seems like Jane ended up having a really nice time. She even ate some food off of Miss Farmer&acirc;€™s plate (she couldn&acirc;€™t force down her own toast earlier) and ended up leaving the restaurant arm in arm with Miss Farmer (whom she couldn&acirc;€™t really stand before that).<br /> <br /> You don&acirc;€™t really know someone until you can actually spend time with them and a lunch or a meal is the perfect way to do this. A colleague of mine, someone who I would never of thought to go to lunch with, asked to join me for lunch one day. Well I also came out of that lunch with a different viewpoint than I went in with on this colleague, we bonded a little over lunch-&acirc;€œFood and the preparation of it is something that enables us to come together as a global community and speak a common language&acirc;€œ.<br /> <br /> Because I just started to write short stories myself and enter into the &acirc;€˜Toronto Star Short Story Contest&acirc;€™, I read all the previous year winner&acirc;€™s short stories. The 2014 first place story &acirc;€œLiving Fossils&acirc;€, second place &acirc;€œLaughing Tiger&acirc;€ and especially third place &acirc;€œThe Pollinators&acirc;€, really captured my attention and have stayed with me-they do pop into my head often. I plan to go back and read all the other year&acirc;€™s winner&acirc;€™s short stories as well.<br /> <br /> Books, odes, tales, plays, articles, poems and short stories have wonderful life lessons embedded within them. I was lucky enough to have had great High School, University and College teachers/professors who guided and showed me the pathway on how to discover these life lessons. From the bottom of my heart, I thank them~<br /> <br /> Take care (read as much as you can) and all the best~Celeste<br /> <br /> www.talesfromaway.com   Submitted By: Alicia "Celeste" Loughrey