The Return of the Lost Daughter:  Live Your Anti-Climax

By Natalie Nera

Naturally, before you do that, you have to experience a climax. Mine happened last week when graduating from Newcastle University after two years of grueling years of hard work, victories, and disappointments (yes, why is my best, not the best?), I finally made it. And it was paired with our fabulous book launch of the anthology that we link with the support of National Literacy Trust.

My anti-climax were several comic relief moments of mistaken identities and failing to operate self-service machines at the Post Office with any degree of success. Then I arrived back in the beautiful city of Prague only to fall ill, instead of continuing with celebrations with my Prague family. The bottle of rosé bubbly still sits in the fridge, waiting for me to stop shivering and sweating, feeling achy and miserable.

As I try to recover from my viral infection, I ponder over the fact that it is sometimes good to go through these things even if they do not make for an exciting plot in a story. You have to live it to understand it. Then step back and become an observer who can entrust stories to paper.