Know that I have Lived: Memoir in Essays

Know that I have Lived is about a curious little girl that scoops up treasure, like a marble on a sidewalk and a toddler drowning in a stream. She rebuffs amorous advances, plays the Virgin Mary in a nativity play, and wins a bicycle that eventually leads to numerous athletic adventures and travel abroad. As a teen babysitter, she unexpectedly takes care of a shooting victim and later comes to terms with the attraction of money. She determines life is not for the weak or the artistic, but optimistically deals with setbacks while feeling the fear and living anyway. Know that I have Lived contains universal themes of curiosity, naivete and self-discovery. The main character has a unique world view, such as treasuring hand-me-downs and valuing self-sufficiency. Ultimately, Jill's resourcefulness, work ethic and self-reliance are her downfall, as readers see in the final chapter when she determines she has nowhere left to go but down -- to the ultimate escape territory of the Florida Keys. The story travels from the Midwest to the Northeast to Florida and from Switzerland to Italy and France, as Jill moves with her family according to a corporation's needs and as she explores beyond America's borders. Triathlons and bike races provide challenge and rewards. Seeing the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France twice in person allow the author to proclaim, "I can die now." Settings are richly conveyed as most evident in the chapter, "Lemme Hole' Your Peen-zel," in which a seventh-grader cannot understand English spoken in her new hometown. At this point, resourcefulness and self-sufficiency are a means of survival -- as further shown in "I've Been Shot," where the teen displays the personal toll of handling life's surprises. Readers who enjoyed Robert Fulghum's bestsellers, All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and It was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, will enjoy this memoir. Meaning in life, told with humor and compassion, has universal appeal and that is the author's aim: to delight readers everywhere.

Author: Jill Zima Borski
Publisher: Borski Publishing
Published: 11/07/2012
Pages: 142
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.30d
ISBN: 9780615724935

About the Author
Jill Zima Borski has been a self-employed writer since 2001. She enjoys sharing her writing knowledge as a teacher of a memoir class at the Florida Keys Community College. She is available for speaking and teaching engagements as well as book signings. In the Keys, Jill also teaches the annually updated curriculum of Great Decisions, a public affairs discussion class coordinated by the Foreign Policy Association. Jill has written for weekly newspapers in the Florida Keys, since her move to Islamorada Jan. 1, 1995. She has published magazine articles and photographs in Sporting Classics, Fly Fishing in Saltwaters, and Culture, and served as editor of The Redbone Journal, a quarterly publication. She has earned several awards for her photography and writing, most recently for the article, "Biking the Keys," published in Keys Sunday. Borski's first book as author and editor was about the 35-year history of the prestigious Card Sound Golf Club at Ocean Reef. It was a coffee table book that retailed for $125! She has been writing travel stories for www.examiner.com since 2009, and is established on facebook and twitter. She is a longtime member of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association (www.fowa.org). She has served on its board of directors for 12 of her 13 years as a member. Jill lives with her husband Tim, a talented wildlife artist and trademarked fishing fly tier, and her sons, Josef and August ("Gus"), in the Florida Keys, where the tropical weather and live-and-let-live attitude suit her well. She swims or rides her racing bike almost daily, and does an occasional triathlon just to prove she still can. She also enjoys almost any outdoor sports as well as yoga and pilates. Jill plans to follow Know that I have Lived with another life story, Know that I have Loved. The time period will be from the time she moved to the Keys to the present. Jill also is working on a romance which highlights a relationship that begins in Italy. Jill has two sisters and three brothers and loves the excitement and craziness of a busy large family. She lives close enough to her parents to frequently be able to enjoy their company and guidance.

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