All posts tagged: childhood

Learning to Forget – Tahirah Abdulazeez

It may sound weird but when I first met Tahirah, I was struck by how similar our thought patterns were.  We’re both nerds, scientists turned writers (or is it vice versa), and just the littlest bit dreamy. 🙂 We met at the Farafina Workshop, and I can’t help but imagine that even if we hadn’t then, eventually we would have. I present to you Tahirah (I also love her name) Abdulazeez. She blogs at http://avosilver.wordpress.com Years ago, I was asked two questions that  resonated with me. The first was suitably mind bending, a philosophical trick question. The second seemed harmless. “What is your first memory?” Simple enough, but, it has been like one of those Chinese boxes. One answer or an attempt at an answer opens up a box with a smaller one inside, and so on until infinity. My first memory is of a car accident. We are in a Peugeot 504. The car crash happens and we end up at the side of the road. It is the middle of nowhere; the destination had been …

10 year old me vs. 21 year old me

Ten year old me was average height, skinny with a slight pot-belly, very tan and had a boy’s cropped hair cut (will locate picture soon). Ten year old had only one wish: more jeans, less housework. Ten year old me had no idea what she wanted to be in future and was flunking Math. Ten year old me held the 58th position (academically) in a class of about 80. (in my defense, the average age in that class was 11 :)) Ten year old was just a regular kid, period. Fast forward, eleven years, and I’m taking stock of my life, wondering if the younger me would approve. The image in my head is of her penning me a letter (email?) so here goes. Dear 21-year-old me, Hi. Glad to see that you (I?) finally figured out what to do with yourself (myself). I would’ve chosen something more glamorous than engineering, though. Oh well… You write? Cool! Can’t understand why you haven’t completed a book, though. Nice book collection, by the way but why no …