Annette Grayson: Can't think of an in-character way to do this.

But then again, I don't think "self-aware and prone to deconstruction" is a thing anyone else has tried, and like my AP English teacher said junior year, that's the default setting for certain members of my generation - we can't just enjoy something, we have to live-tweet it and read instant analysis the next morning, and because both we and the generation before us are starting to write so young, all we know is pop-culture and writing, so everything we create and devour is about itself rather than actual experiences we've had.  And, you know, he probably isn't wrong.  But what can I do?  I want to tell stories.

So, hi.  My name's Annette Grayson.  I'm from a small town in Maine that feeds a big regional high school, I graduated in the top 3% of my class, and I'm going to Harvard in the fall to major in English with an emphasis on creative writing.  I'm here for an experience that will broaden my horizons.

Not that I really believe that the Inn is cursed and will turn me into one of the guys who left their luggage in this room!  Aside from that being ridiculous, presenting myself as believing that would be against the rules of the game.  No, the way I figure it, those of us that signed up for a blog account by emailing the address that was surreptitiously slipped under our doors will be told which suitcase to open, be given the details of our new life, and then it will be up to us to research and recount what it's like to live in that person's skin for however long it holds our interest.  It's kind of a game, I think, and I don't know if there's prizes or anything, but maybe I'll get to meet Penny Lincoln at some point and hopefully not be a total fangirl.

She's what led me here, after all.  I love love love the "Pygmalion's Proteges" series, and can't wait for the third book next summer.  A lot of my friends just identify with the themes of rebelling against the adults trying to make them into something else (I know, I'm doing the instant analysis thing rather than just enjoying it), but I really like Penny Lincoln's writing, enough to have read all four of her Lynn Ashford mysteries, and while searching for other things she wrote, I got down to page fifty of a Google search and found this.  I don't know that she wrote any of the Art/Liz/Nell/Penny stories, but they sound like her.  When I found out that there was an actual Trading Post Inn in Old Orchard, I told Gretchen that we had to go there over summer vacation.

That's my best friend Gretchen Hines, by the way, who's my roommate for the next week or two.  She only really goes for the PP books, and she's not interested in any sort of writing challenge, but she's absolutely down for a couple of weeks at the beach while our moms get used to our not being around.  Well, my mom, mostly - it's just been the two of us since dad walked out, and since I tended to study a lot more than go out in high school, we probably had a closer relation than many moms and daughters have, and she joked about this being a trial run.

I'm excited for that, too - I wasn't any sort of shut-in who couldn't get a boyfriend or anything, but I never had to fend for myself as much as Gretch and some other friends did.  Maybe that's what I'll wind up writing about, someone totally independent and with nobody else to rely on.  I kind of can't wait.

-Annette