Home » fun stuff » Weekend Writing Prompt #243 – Temerity

Weekend Writing Prompt #243 – Temerity

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A word prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend.  How you use the prompt is up to you.  Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like.  Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise.  If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in the comments.  Thank you for hosting Sammi.  I love when a thought comes to mind while watching mindless TV!

 

wk 243 temerity

 

Hindsight is 20/20 Vision

 

I watch Emily in Paris with a middle-aged woman’s wistfulness,

having never dared to go outside the comfort of my known box

 

To have the temerity to take a job in a country

where you don’t speak the language or know the culture

What an experience!

 

Naturally, we see things differently over time

 

Today, I say I wish I could have

Then, it never would have crossed my mind

 

Closest I’ve gotten to Paris is through Epcot Center!

 

103 thoughts on “Weekend Writing Prompt #243 – Temerity”

  1. Dear Dale,

    I started to watch that show and then decided I wasn’t getting into it. Perhaps I’ll give it another go. Love the write. Hindsight is always 20/20.

    Shalom and lotsa courageous hugs,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 3 people

    • Dear Rochelle,

      It is light fare, to be sure. No brain required and not something I thought I would enjoy but here I am into season 2.
      Hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t it?

      Shalom and lotsa love,

      Dale

      Like

  4. I was only in Paris as a child, but perhaps you can go there on your way to Italy because I’m sure you will make it back there again!

    You know, I’m not sure that hindsight is 20/20 simply because we do see it through another lens.

    I haven’t watched the show.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I was supposed to go to Burgundy (for a cooking class like I did in Tuscany) both in 2019 and 2020. Both times had to cancel. A woman I met in Tuscany is booked once again for this April but I am still uncomfortable with the idea at this time. I like to think that one day, life will return to some semblance of order!!

      I think you are absolutely right.

      It’s very light… no brain required light 😉

      Liked by 1 person

  5. We went to Epcot at the beginning of December. When I saw the photo for this post I said to myself “this has got to be Epcot!” Glad I was right. It would drive me crazy if there was a part of Paris that actually looked like the Disney-fied version.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Thank you, Michelle. I got so caught up in your story and previous one, that I forgot to thank you for this lovely comment and letting me know I inspired you 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  8. It’s easy to look back and think of doing things differently. But we live in the moment and in those past moments, we all did what we thought was the only thing to do. LOL Times change and what we an do today, we really couldn’t do in the past. But it’s still fun to dream.

    Liked by 2 people

    • It sure is. And in all seriousness, I am with you. I am very a live-in-the moment. And to be honest, I wouldn’t have even considered making such a choice back then. Wonder if I would today!!

      Like

  10. Dale, Burgundy will still be there for you when you’re ready. I spent a few holidays near Montpellier and really fell in love with rural France. I hope you will go because I have an idea you will love it.

    Liked by 3 people

  11. ‘What if?’ is such a big question! I think if the drive was there, an attempt would be made. (That’s how I comfort myself when thinking back. I did what I felt able to do at the time!)

    Liked by 2 people

  12. Well composed, Dale.
    My niece did that. Two kids later, a still pending (French) divorce, learning the lingo (and got jobs), almost a citizen; I must wonder what her hindsight would tell her. Outcome is pending.

    Liked by 2 people

    • It’s funny. I went to Tuscany and was chastised for not going to Rome. I said I would eventually make it there but for now, I wanted to concentrate on this little section. I think I’d feel the same way about Paris. I would like to visit but I’m pretty sure I’d prefer the countryside.
      And thank you, Eilene! Epcot was great. I loved it.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. I did it! I moved to France without speaking the language and had a position within a company controlling their British operation! It’s surprising how quickly you learn the linguistic basics like how to order a beer, sorry, une bière!

    Btw, great fan of Emily in Paris!

    Liked by 2 people

  19. We watched season 1 of Emily in gay Paree. *smile* When I was 18 I spent two months in Switzerland in Experiment in International Living. It was a huge leap out of my small-town box. We flew into Paris first, but I was so sick and nauseated with jet-lag that the city remains a blur… We had to spend six weeks immersed in a language camp before going, but it was probably still temerity.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I just finished Season 2. Honestly, was fun to watch. Wow! How great that you did that! A friend of mine did, I believe 2 semesters of her masters in Norway. I thought that was so cool.
      Bummer you were sick, though. I think that is very temerity 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  20. I’m lucky enough to have travelled all over Europe when I was younger – but then it’s a lot closer to me 🙂 I always wanted to live there for a while and did once apply to be an au pair – fortunately I didn’t get a placement because with hindsight I don’t think I was mature enough to have been able to cope with it very well. And never say never, Paris is within reach 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    • Everything is just a train ride away for you! And I’m happy for you that you took advantage of it. Being an au pair would never have been a good fit for me. I love my kids and my sister’s kids, but kids in general? I could take or leave 😉
      Oh, I know. One day, I shall stroll the streets of Gay Paree 😉

      Liked by 1 person

  22. My first husband came home one day when our youngest son (now fifty- one) was four years old and said he was planning a trip for us to England and France. I reminded him that he had said we couldn’t travel because we lacked the money. He replied that he had reconsidered. If we waited until we had enough money, we would be too old to enjoy it. That was the beginning of a lifetime of traveling, even after we went our separate ways, either alone or with a new partner.

    WE
    e

    Liked by 2 people

    • I love his attitude. We wait and we wait and we always find something else. Best to do it now. Mick and I travelled quite a bit. We were finally talking about Italy in 2012 but then my father got sick and died six months later and then Mick himself died a year and some after that. That’s why I went to Italy by myself in 2016. And was planning on travelling more but then moving house and covid decided not yet.

      Liked by 1 person

  27. Q

    I think most people have thoughts such as this, be it about travel or career or having gotten married or having stayed single. To which I, in one of my very few truly diplomatic moments, smile at the thoughts and the second thoughts they possess. I smile because I don’t relate to them, so it’s a learning experience for me. To understand, or try to, their wanting to have done something or gone somewhere.

    I use the lesson to tell my daughter to go where she feels like going, now, before the rest of her life starts happening. My son is too much like me, not so much the traveler. Like me, he’s traveled plenty, but he is just as fine with sticking close to home.

    That’s life, that difference in us all. I appreciate that difference, because I think it’s where learning happens.

    NICE use of this challenge. Very nice. 😉

    B

    Liked by 2 people

  28. I’d have taken a job in another country, but once I got into film it felt like I was in another world.
    Actually, I was in other worlds, the worlds of the stories we were telling/filming.
    I’ll tell you, it took a lot of temerity to go to producers and directors when I had no experience and sell myself as a designer.
    …And I did get sent to Los Angeles and New York a lot. There’s this hotel across from the Whisky A-Go-Go, on the street behind Sunset Blvd. OMG… I had so much fun there. I love NYC!

    Liked by 2 people

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