I'm nearly certain that all people have shared the glorious experience of scolding.
I fondly recall my father's frequent demands, 'Tahirah! Don't write on the wall!' I still
can't quite comprehend why, since I was so highly skilled with crayola at six years old,
my father wouldn't want my lovely multicolored words upon the otherwise dull, white
walls. When I discovered books, the admonishment was usually, 'Turn out the light! Put
that book down and go to bed!' Thank goodness book lights can be easily hidden under
blankets. The most recent reprimands have regarded my mother's strange desire that I
turn my music off; apparently wearing earphones isn't good enough (unfortunately quite
often her voice doesn't seem to make it to my ears). I've noticed that the chastisements
have maintained a similarity in purpose, for they continually insist that I neglect my
health. It's horrid to think about what could happen if I didn't have the three necessities
of life: music, books, and writing.
Though I've transitioned from writing on the walls to using one of my numerous
notebooks or Steve, my beloved computer, the intent has remained the same: to get out as
many of my thoughts as possible before my mind overflows. Regrettably, this almost
always leads to more scolding: 'Turn off that computer, you have school in the
morning!' My mind doesn't seem to value sleep as much as my parents do; even when
I'm safely tucked away beneath the covers, I still feel the urge to reach through the
darkness to grab a pen and paper. If not kept awake at night by my need to write, I'm
kept awake by my need to read (guess that's why I'm not a morning person). Numerous
authors have been responsible for preventing me from getting the requisite rest. It
shouldn't come as any surprise that one of my favorite locations is sitting in one of the
black comfy chairs within Borders Books and Music.
My three basic needs all generally involve the same thing, which is that they
express something using words. Whether they're sung or written, I admire the use of
words to take the pieces of a thought and form them into something comprehensible. No
doubt, this is the cause of my extensive quote collection. As described by Anna H.
Branch, 'God wove a web of loveliness, of clouds and stars and birds, but made not any
thing at all so beautiful as words.'