Welcome to Things I Love Tuesday, my weekly post where I get to showcase the things that tickle my fancy.
One of my favorite things about visiting my parents is the chance to dig up treasures from my youth. I know, I know — I’m only 24 years old, so we’re not talking a huge span of time. Still, I am inclined towards nostalgia and I have a tendency to save things (though nothing on the level of Hoarders folks), which means that when I dig through the storage bins in the garage, there’s always a chance of uncovering something precious but forgotten.
I’ve saved the normal sorts of things, like old report cards, essays that received high marks, awards from elementary school, but what I really treasure are the books that I’ve kept, especially the ones from when I first learning how to read.
Today’s find: my copy of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, a present for my 5th birthday. What makes these books extra special, however, is that it’s also where I wrote my first story.
The front page has an inscription from my mom, written in red crayon. It still smile whenever I read it, because it brings back memories of the day she wrote it for me.
"Jamila will have a birthday soon! She will be 5 years old. Jamila will go to an ice show with her mom and dad."
My mom taught me how to read and write before I got to kindergarten. I’m her first-born, and she thought that I would need the skills when I started school. For the record, I ended up incredibly over-prepared.
The reading bit was an accident; she read to me every day, and eventually I started reading back to her. Once I mastered that, she taught me letters, words, and sentences. When I had those building blocks in hand, there was no stopping me. I wanted to make stories of my own.
Granted, they’re a little silly, disjointed, and short, like the above: “I am Jamila on a big cat.” Still, I tried for a little complexity:
One thing I had down by this point, quite clearly, is my name. One thing I didn’t have down, and that was the whole “books go from left to right” business.
On the right, we have the start of the story: “Jamila story book by Jamila Jamison Sinlao.” (No grasp of possessive nouns, either.) As it continues,
the story. [I am] 4 and I will be 5 next year and my TV…
The fox ate the rabbit and the lamb.
the end of the story
What I really love? The fact that my mom wrote out, “The end of the story” so I could copy it down myself. Gotta love parents who encourage their children’s endeavors.
Really, what we have here are my first attempts at flash fiction. :p But what I also think it shows is that for me, my love of reading and writing fiction sprang up together.
When did you start writing fiction? Was it an early hobby, or something that you adopted later? Any fun stories about your first stories?
