Joseph Boyden.

Hey everyone ! It's been a while ! I think ?

Well here's me talking to you about one of my best experiences in the OIB: meeting Joseph Boyden. Him talking about his books' major themes had made me want to read all of his works, and more particularly his newest, Seven Matches. Certainly, I think that all his bibliography could be a summer reading list. I also remember the discussion being really interesting, depending on the person's point of view and what book the person read, I saw the links between the books that followed a chronological order, from the 17th century to today, without forgetting World War I, which I thought was amazing, to have him describe radically different eras.
The thing he said that most got to me was when he told about how he got into writing, finishing by saying "Trust your gut" which was the phrase that instantly got stuck in my mind. It hit really close to home because, working with what I love, music and languages, makes me one of the happiest girl, I wouldn't say happiest girl alive, but you get the point. And this day also made me discover how I could love translating. First, I was surprisingly comfortable and easy about instant translation, something that I had never done before. I was also surprised because I'm usually not that easy about speaking in public. But here, yea, I felt good. Moreover, it was about translating literature, and I thought that nothing could be better.


So, coming back to the "trust your gut" bit, you all deserve to cling to a passion and do everything you can to fulfill it, just like he said. That's what I tell myself everyday. I'll never forget this day, and I think that is a good occasion for me to sincerely thank Mr Leah for introducing us to this amazing person and author that Joseph Boyden is.




Good luck to the terminales for the bac !!
And have a good week-end (:
Marilyn