Monday, June 23, 2014

If I don't Write to Empty my Mind I Go Mad

Sometimes, I forget that writing my thoughts here get read publicly and when I bump into people and they share they like my blog I can help, but feel exposed.  The thing is that I’ve always been a writer- since I learned to write I've kept a journal.  I am the youngest of four and my brother who is closest to me in age is seven years older than I am.  Being the baby in the family by so many years apart I spent a lot of time playing alone.  Though my siblings loved me – they always made it known that I was the youngster and at times they didn’t want anything to do with me because of the difference in maturity.  I think that’s probably what lead me to become quite introspective.  To this day most of my world happens in my mind- if that makes any sense.  While I lead a pretty active social life I love being alone.  As weird as it might sound I enjoy my company a lot.  In fact when I am with my family I think I am more the listener of the group.  My mom and my sister can talk up a storm- there are times when we go for long walks and I think I say no more than ten words.  At times when I am sharing an experience with them I have to tell them to let me finish my story because they are so anxious to talk themselves.  In addition, I shared before that as a child I struggled because of my lack of the English Language- well when I did start to speak English my classmates made fun of me because some sounds came out with an accent.  I remember being laughed at because phonetically I couldn’t pronounce the “ch” sound and children laughed when I said, “chair” or “chocolate” (which are very popular words when you are a child).  I was a shy kid with a whole lot happening at home so I began to avoid speaking.  Yet, when I had the opportunity to write things down and not worry about pronunciation I relished the freedom.

I am yet to find a listener that puts up with me as paper does.  Growing up, I was always the outcast.  I remember we lived on a street of apartments with a bunch of my cousins and you would think that family would have been kinder to my assimilation struggles, but my cousins too wouldn’t want to play with me because I didn’t speak English.  Then I started excelling in school and books became my passion, which in the ghetto being a bookworm is not the most popular status to have.  Thus, my formative experiences led me to writing as an outlet and a way to have conversations on topics and ideas that others found quite boring.  For the greatest part of my life I didn’t think anyone was interested in listening to me since the subjects I preferred seemed as weird as me.  It took a lot of therapy to find my voice and while now I am a pretty good conversationalist I still have a great need to write.  When I speak things come out wrong and usually I say things without thinking, but when I write I see the words in mind so clearly.  Am also unafraid to share things because I feel like I am just talking to me or (since my conversion) to God.
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When I was in university, I came across my favorite myth in mythology class The Epic of Gilgamesh.  In the tale Gilgamesh wants immortality and goes on a quest to find it, after conquering many battles and learning his weakness (and mortality) he realizes that the only way to become immortal is by becoming a legend, one that future generations will continue to share.  At the time I was agnostic and battling the whole purpose of life notion and since I didn’t believe in life after death (then) this idea of remaining alive through the power of story really attracted me.  I found solace and for a time it guided me into wanting to write books and stories so that one day I too would be remembered and maybe then my life would have meaning.
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Now as a practicing Catholic I write privately letters to God.  Most of the time I do this during adoration.  It calms me and makes me really concentrate on the conversation I am having with my God.  Also, when I am experiencing really difficult moments I write in my journal and I know that God is listening.  When I decided to start a blog – I felt the need to write not to become a legend, but to help readers with my honest testimony.  Thus, almost a year later I still have my moments when I feel like I shared too much or even worry about what others will think of me, but the need to write is stronger.  I wanted to create this place to help others, but no one has been more improved than me.  Some people run, others create I write - end of story (smile).   

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