I started writing through letters. My Dad was a sailor and he would write my Mom letters on yellow sheets of paper detailing his experience in a large boat filled with people from different countries.
Often times, he wrote about how lonely he can get but he chose to bear the pain of being away from Mom and his four children so he can a better provider for the family. He would often say that his salary in the Philippines is not even a quarter from what he is earning as an international seafarer.
Those letters would arrive every month. I remember looking forward to each letter written on some yellow paper. My Mom would let me read portions of those letters. I think the parts which are appropriate for a six-year-old girl to read. Every time I read the sad musings of my Father, I felt bad. I felt that I was a part of that sadness. So I told my Mom that she should only write the good news to Dad so he won’t feel that sad. My Mom would write about how we miss him very much and report about my positive progress in school. My high scores never fails to cheer him up, my Mom would tell me.
I think it was my Mom who suggested the idea of me writing letters to my Father using my Grade One paper. English is not our first language at home. I was raised in a Filipino (Philippine) household that speaks a language called Cebuano. At the same time, I learned about our national language called Filipino from watching television shows and soap operas. My Dad would always write in English and that got me into responding/writing letters in English. My Mom was my guide all throughout that letter-writing journey and I remember feeling so accomplished when folded that one sheet of paper and placed it in the same envelope where Mom’s reply was.
I wrote letters to my Dad over and over again that we would send him letters three times in a month. That made my Dad so happy as he was sailing the high seas and he told me to keep writing because he loves to read my letters.
I wrote and wrote and wrote.
I haven’t stopped since then.
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T30WC or The 30-minute Writing Challenge is a writing exercise born out of this blogger’s need to maintain a habit of writing. Subjects of each writing challenge is just about anything but should ONLY be written within 30 minutes.
