Check it: I'm writing this and it's One Hundred and One degrees (101) outside. Sweet mercy me, that is hot. It's hotter than it gets in September when lunkheads start to talk about "Fall" around here and you walk outside and the sun smirks down at you. "Nope!" You didn't even get to ask it a question. It's terse glare consumes all you do that day. This is twice the high of a large majority of the country, but I temper my consideration in trading my location. It fucking snowed in Denver the other day. What in the...
Your author isn't writing about the climate. I'm writing about location. I viewed a recent movie where the shy (or...likely disordered) boy moves to a new place. In a stunning turn of events, one of his neighbors is a sweet girl, one that may look like the others in that town, but her behavior is rooted in complete positives. I'm aware that you've probably seen this movie, or a situation like it. Maybe it was the film "A Nerdy Writer Writes About His Daydreams at 15" which as I understand it was released by Fox Searchlight (under different nom de plumes) every other year since 2001.
I started becoming an annoying viewer maybe 30 minutes in, and roped Smiley into my complaints. "Look, he's purposely ignoring her! She's on a platter! What the fuck?" Yeah, it's a movie. My street beef wasn't that I knew what was going to occur; we all know where this path ends. It's not that the real life likelihood of this tango was non-existent. It was that we knew what good fortune this dunce had in store, and it was barely mentioned by any character his age (and if so, it was a slam): it was the location. And his luck, of course, but he wouldn't have that "luck" if he wasn't in the right location.
Does where you live cause trouble? Geography or home? Does going on a vacation mean leaving a place where most people don't vacation? Does your school warm you with asbestos? Did your grandpappy buy land somewhere for next to nothing and now everyone realizes what he did long ago?
Does your office have a window? Is it near the new girl? Is it next to the new girl? Is that how you met?
Did you stay in the left lane? Did you get an aisle seat at the stadium so you could catch the foul ball?
From the inconsequential to the life-changing (for better or worse) I arrived at the realization that skill and logic only run on one track: location. Sometimes it makes it easy...seem like that "luck" I mentioned above. Sometimes it makes it harder...or appear impossible. Where you are and how you're feeling...I guess that makes up the gold quotient, huh?
