Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Stories to tell.

I am working on some stories to tell at the moment. I am not sure where those stories would end up in. It could be just a teaching material for Sunny-field English or could go into a bit bigger world. Things are still uncertain but always good to come up with some stories to tell, especially before winter holiday.

One of the stories is about Tomo, a girl who is a typical teenager who has become apathetic to life itself. She has fallen into the worst mindset that she can possible be: Apathy. She doesn't care about anything. That is when life itself loses its color. Anger or stress might be a bit better than apathy for it is an emotion. Apathy is the final stage of spiritual death. It is not the absent of desire such as enlightenment or mindfulness to the present moment. It is the absent of emotion. Whatever the reason, all the emotions are frozen or terminated. It might be one of those defense mechanism working to prevent any pains to feel. It could happen to anyone with exceptionally tender heart. When the heart can't take the pain from life, it would stop taking it, would it? It can be a lonely fight till you realize that you are not alone. I've been there and done that. I struggled, stressed and wished that I had no emotions at all. At some point, I became quite apathetic to some aspects of life but my emotional nature didn't allow me to kill all the emotions but some exceptionally tender-hearted children might terminate the function in order to survive. Tomo is one of them. She has lost faith in her and life ltself. Everything looks futile and meaningless. In the world of massive productions and wastes, what kind of meaningful life can she possible have? She would say things like, "We all die anyway." She doesn't know there are some wonderful things she can enjoy on this comparatively short journey called life if only she opens her eyes and heart wide and take all in. Some pains involve yet the pleasures are worth enduring the pains. Perhaps she would learn this via finding passion in music, namely playing trombone. The bond she would build with club mates via practicing for a contest she happened to get involved in spite of apathy. Life can work in an unexpected way and opens up a new path for you from time to time with a bit of luck  in a form of an extra helping hands. For Tomo, it is the brass band club she unintentionally got involved ironically because of her apathetic attitude towards life itself. She just singed an application form of the club while she was aimlessly wander about the school corridor on the first day of the new school year. The enthusiastic members of the club caught her and got her in as a new member. She didn't have any ideas what she was up for but didn't bother to question it. She did what she was told to avoid further troubles. But actually this event got her in a whole new world.

The second story is about a teenage who immigrated with her family from Mexico to Seattle, Washington, where her parents were offered jobs as a cook and a waitress at a Mexican restaurant. Her parents took the offer thinking it would give their daughter better life. Catalina lost all her best friends and her home country at the most challenging stage of life. Knowing her parents good intention and love towards her, she tried to cope with the changes wholeheartedly in spite of all the challenges she faced. The first challenge was the language. Although she learned English a little at a primary school in Mexico, her English wasn't good enough to talk with her friends and she couldn't follow any works at school at the beginning. The language barrier looked too high to overcome. But again music the universal language would help her to make friends with her classmates. In her case, it is the guitar she has learned how to play from her dad paid off. On top of that, her lovely and tender nature nurtured by love from her parents and music get her overcome all the obstacles she faced. Her music opens her mind and people's hearts eventually. An idea hit her on one Sunday when she saw a busker, playing the guitar on the street in downtown Seattle when she wandered around alone because she had no friends and parents were busy working. Because of the performance and the people's reaction, she decided to give a try to perform with her guitar on the street. She had nowhere to go and no one to talk with anyway. It seemed like busking could make a fun activity.

Umm...lots of consideration and revision would be needed but two teenage girls might inspire me to tell their stories more. Ta-ta to you till the further inspiration allows me to pen some more lines.

No comments:

Post a Comment