For Better or Worse

Calendar, Essays, Human Nature, Writing 2 Minutes
12 July 2015: Decatur, Georgia.

Another year is coming to a close. I have given up naming each one as the worst, though this one definitely included some of the worst circumstances I’ve encountered so far. In addition to the usual concerns about employment and health, this year started with losing my younger brother, Wendell.

Wendell Earnest Lupo around 1973.

It has also been a mixed bag for employment, starting nearly halfway through the year. One employer who had been fairly reliable became less certain but, toward the end, another emerged who holds a great deal of promise. All totaled, I had five jobs for three different employers and traveled a lot for work. I started trying to learn what I need to know to get certified in key areas, but the progress has been slow and inconsistent.

Creatively, I haven’t had the greatest amount of success this year. I continued work on Worthy and had a play staged at Academy Theatre over the summer. I finally started experimenting with Photoshop in creating book covers, and the results will be seen shortly. I tried my hand at running my own business, selling books, but that has proven to be more work with little reward. I’ve been trying to learn how to better market my work but so far, that hasn’t met with much success either.

It was a year of firsts, my first time visiting Wisconsin, Louisville, Roanoke, and Long Island. My first time back in New York City and NYU since 1994-1995, and seeing some old friends and family there. It was my first time spending seventeen hours continuously behind the wheel of a car. Also, the first time I managed to bring my walking speed below thirteen minutes a mile. This was also my year for vaccinations, getting five different vaccines over the course of the year.

Overall, it’s been a long and frustrating year. Lots of progress but almost as many setbacks. Perhaps the only consolation is that I seem to have survived it. 2023 looms with several significant milestones on the horizon. So, I’ll most likely be taking it easy for the day, and starting all over again tomorrow.

Here’s to a more contented and prosperous new year.

Published by G. M. Lupo

​G. M. Lupo (ISNI: 0000 0005 0315 9196) is a native of Atlanta, Georgia where he has always had a dysfunctional relationship with his hometown. His most recent published work is the story collection Reconstruction (2020), part of his series of Atlanta Stories, which includes Fables of the New South (2017). Along with his novel, Rebecca, Too (2018), and his full-length play Another Mother, these constitute his Expanded Universe of Fictional Atlanta. He has also released a collection of essays, poetry, and stories entitled Words Words Words (2020). He was the winner of the 2017 Essential Theatre Play Writing Award for Another Mother which had its world premiere in his home neighborhood of West End in August 2017, in the building that once housed the library where he learned to read as a child.

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