Ever since my blog post about poetry (shorthand review: hated it!), I’ve continued listening to the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Magazine monthly podcast. While poetry is still not my favorite genre of literature, at least now I no longer cringe at the thought of it.
In one of the podcasts when I first started listening, there was a poem by Lucie Brock-Broido called “Extreme Wisteria.” While to me it was completely nonsensical, one word really stuck out: abandonarium. I loved it! I pretty much quit listening after that (I really need to stop doing that!) because my brain went nuts.
In my head, my abandonarium is where all my shelved ideas and paths not taken hang out – it is the home of my murdered selves. My degree collection is in there, along with the versions of me who would have used those degrees.
My latest addition to the abandonarium was collected right before Thanksgiving. I finally was called for jury duty. I was all excited to be there, and the thought of being able to be in a legal setting every day really excited me. I decided I wanted to become a paralegal.
While sitting in the jury lounge, I signed up for an information night at a local university, contacted a friend in the field, and I even wrote a blog post about the possibilities. Part of that post asked, “What is holding me back?”
Once the jury pool was released without a single panel being created, the excitement waned and reality set in. Long hours of precise work with little recognition no longer seemed as appealing. There is a reason I didn’t go down this path twelve years ago when I actually enrolled in the program. Oh that.
Despite the fact that the dream has settled back into the abandonarium, it felt good to be excited and thinking about new paths … and the idea of going back to school! It showed me that something is definitely missing.
What was the last item added to your abandonarium? or Am I the only one who gets so excited about jury duty and the entire legal process?
Grown Up, Now What? 
I thought I was the only one excited about jury duty. I’ve only been selected once, but I couldn’t go since I had moved and no longer lived in the area.
For a while I wanted to be picked because of my job. I worked as a criminal background investigator and I part of the job was reading through court documents. I thought it would be interesting to see how all those pages got put together. Oh well, it never happened. It still hasn’t happened – one day I’m sure I’ll be called to duty.
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I’m glad I’m not alone in finding it fascinating! There is still hope you will get on a jury. Although I’ve been called to jury duty two times when I could make it, I still have never been on a jury. Once I made it into a court room, but the jury was filled before I even got into the box for them to ask me questions.
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I have made it a priority to avoid serving on a jury. The legal process is completely confusing to me. My mind does not work in those ideals of justice and if, then scenarios.
Thank you for introducing me to this term – Abandonarium. It sounds like a place that I’ve been filling for years without even knowing it.
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I’ve found that what is obvious to everyone else is not always obvious for me. For that reason, it probably wouldn’t be a good fit for me, no matter how drawn I am to it.
I, too, love the term “abandonarium”. Like you it was something that I’d been using for years but didn’t have a name for it.
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