'Grown Up Slumber Parties': friendship, relationships ... - York Blog

I'll be Slumber Partying my whole life, probably. (Image courtesy of pinterest.com)

A dear friend of mine from my college days introduced me to this quote by Jim Jarmusch:

?Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations?Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent?In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ?It?s not where you take things from?It?s where you take them to.??

I?ve been a creative writer since I was 12, and most of my material is, well, borrowed. OK, stolen. I preface all of this because my latest project, ?Grown Up Slumber Parties? I recognize is essentially a mash up of ?Sex and the City?, ?He?s Just Not that Into You?, and every single chick flick ever made.

But I really do think it?s unique in that rather than promoting the same character archetypes or plot dilemmas, everything in my story is completely real.

I absentmindedly started chronicling the plight of my best friends and I and our relationship woes about a year ago. When we were all in town, I realized we?d inevitably end up back at my house with a bottle of wine (or two) and stay up all night filling each other in on the life (or death) of our latest romances.

I explain it all in the book?s preface:

?And that?s where we?d talk all night, in a sense reverting to our eleven/twelve year old selves. Not all slumber parties were the same for us growing up. Some of us did the whole clich? ?braid each other?s hair; paint each other?s nails.? Some of us got together, sang Shania Twain, put on our momma?s heels, and pretended we were thirty and fabulous. Sometimes, we just watched Nickelodeon marathons. The point is, we got together and did something that bonded us in girlishness. We bonded by the no-boys allowed factor. We slept in the same rooms, we did the same things, and really, how is that so different from when we?re in our early 20s? Sure, there?s booze now involved but the concept still remains the same. We are ladies. We bear the proud XX genes. No boys allowed. Hear us roar. These are the tales of our grown-up slumber parties.

A sneak peak of some of the chapters include:

1. Dealing with heartbreak from an international breakup.
2. Feeling attracted to a friend of the opposite sex ? and trying to decide what to do.
3. Getting rejected on the streets of Washington, D.C., at 4 a.m.
4. Finally getting the empowerment to move on from a destructive relationship.
5. Getting a marriage proposal from the son of the Bulgarian ambassador.

I remember my college days when finals week had completely destroyed my will to be productive, so I?d sit and watch hours of ?Sex and the City.? I wasn?t a huge fan of the show, but I appreciated the fact that HBO showed women sitting around a lunch table complaining and bragging about their love lives, because after all, that?s what women do.

Women in college don?t necessarily have the same problems as career women, so it had me wondering why there weren?t similar productions for women of all age groups. So I made my own.

I love this story because it?s not just another romance book. It?s not just about the girl getting the guy she longs for. This story is about young women growing and healing as they venture into the next phase of life.

I?m 22 years old and in a serious relationship. I?m the happiest I?ve been in a long time, and looking back at this memoir, I?m reminded I have the best friends in the world? I wouldn?t have gotten to this place without any of them.

We?ve supported each other though the worst of it. I think that?s the most reassuring thing: No matter how bad, how bizarre, how frustrating our interactions are with these creatures called men, it?s our family, friends and support system who show us the love we?ve been looking for all along.

I'm the Marketing Copywriter/Coordinator for MediaOnePA and York Newspaper Company. I wear pastel colored pants. I have the most adorable cat ever. I Love Downtown York. I cry when I enter large libraries. Want to chat? Contact me at epollick@mediaonepa.com

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