{"id":257702,"date":"2023-11-30T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/?p=257702"},"modified":"2024-01-24T11:04:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T16:04:16","slug":"twisting-my-life-into-a-story-sacrificed-my-ability-to-live-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electricliterature.com\/twisting-my-life-into-a-story-sacrificed-my-ability-to-live-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Twisting My Life Into a Story Sacrificed My Ability to Live It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our street is the kind resplendent with trees that escort your car along its morning commute, their eager branches bending over the road. Old Victorian mansions are chopped into infinitesimal apartments very much like our own\u2014a big red brick thing that was once a nursing home, though the only suggestions of its past are showers that slip right into the floor and the eerie shrouded feeling that comes with walking its halls. My favorite part of the neighborhood, however, is the science museum that sits down the street.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Brutalistically gray and unassuming, the science museum watches over its surrounding homes and greets my partner and I on our daily walks. This is why I notice immediately when the sign shows up, overnight. Small and vague, planted right by the entrance. All I can make out are the words \u201cOrchid Show.\u201d There are no dates listed, so I\u2019m not sure if it happened already, if it\u2019s happening now, or if it\u2019s happening in the near future. But it has an attractive air of mystery that pulls at me\u2014freshly out of graduate school and trying to figure this life thing out, trying to find something to care about. I\u2019m desperate for, as cliche and literal it is, a sign. For the universe to come around and smack me in the face with something important, worthy. And this cipher, flimsy on a white board and metal legs, has a luring specificity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon returning to our apartment, my partner, Jonny, looks up the information. \u201cOrchid Show, Rochester\u201d is the only search term we can think of to return the result we want. What comes up are various orchid societies, one from the Genesee Region of New York and one encompassing the entire country: the American Orchid Society. It turns out this year marks the latter\u2019s 47th annual show, complete with lecture talks, orchid sales, and living art pieces created and cared for by members of the local chapter. In essence, it\u2019s a carnival for the flower\u2019s most dedicated followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show\u2019s last day is Sunday, and Jonny goes with me under the pretense that we\u2019ll only stay if it\u2019s free. Who are we\u2014two broke, recent graduates\u2014to spend any amount of money on something so silly? We pull open the heavy glass doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, we\u2019ll just look around,\u201d I tell him. Internally, I\u2019m cursing myself for not knowing about this event earlier, thinking I could have pitched coverage of it to my local newspaper. Already, in my head, I know I can\u2019t turn away. Already, I\u2019m experiencing each moment through the lens of how it would work in a story.<\/p>\n\n\n