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As long as I can remember I was a people watcher, a snoop and an avid eavesdropper. I liked to be in everyone's business or at least know about it. Hiding behind desks in kindergarten I could overhear teacher gossip, not always understanding the big words but shelving them away. In elementary school I would crouch in bathroom stalls and listen to the girls say mean things about other girls. And at home I would creep by my parent's bedroom, wait breathlessly in the hall, and listen in to their daily debriefing. I was often proud of my meddling skills and would report back to my mother about what I had seen or overheard so she gave me what would become one of my favorite books of all time, Harriet The Spy.
Harriet loved spying on everyone and felt compelled to write it all down in her notebook. Of course she gets caught, the notebook gets found, everyone is furious with her, and she learns the valuable lesson that if you write it down, it will be read, so beware. After reading the book when I was 8 years old the lesson I learned was if you write it down, and it's interesting enough, it will be read and passed on to others to read! That sounded extraordinarily exciting to me so I began to write it all down.
I started writing in a diary and I never stopped. Sometimes I feel if I don't write about something, then it didn't really happen.
The past few weeks, while gearing up for my memoir to be released, I have been thinking a lot about Harriet, who ended up putting her writing skills to good use and working for the school paper. My lifelong snooping has also been put to good use by helping me understand the ins and outs of relationships and human nature. Details I otherwise would have forgotten are forever documented in my dairies. Embarrassing thoughts are hidden away in a box in my dresser invited to come out now and then. But unlike Harriet who wrote about others, in this memoir I write mostly about myself, revealing my own quirks and secrets and missteps. Now I hope the book will be read and passed on to others!
Sascha Rothchild How to get Divorced by 30 Marriage Divorce Plume
