October 1998. I was six years old. Our first-grade teacher sent us home one night with an assignment to write a Halloween story. She encouraged us to write whatever kind of story we wanted, as long as it was about Halloween. I wrote a short horror story about a child who walks through a cemetery, meeting many ghosts that live there and learning about their tragic endings.
When I finished the story, I presented it to my parents, chin up, chest out and full of pride. When they finished it, their body language did not reflect mine. At first, I thought they must be confused because of all the spelling and grammar errors. Turns out, it wasn’t the writing errors at all. After all, I come from a family of immigrants. Proper English is rare, anyway. My parents were not confused; they were concerned. I remember my mother’s hand quivering so much that I swear I heard her fingers weeping. She winced while asking me, “Poops…are you ok?” (Did I mention my nickname was…and still is… ‘Poops’? Suddenly, a six-year-old writing a ghost story isn’t the scariest part of this little memoir, is it?) I paused for a second. I let their reactions register. I let their question with all of its shuddering syllables sink in, and then I…
…Laughed! I laughed until my lungs shrunk. Maybe that’s where my asthma came from; I don’t know. The important thing is I learned something crucial. I learned about the power of a reaction. I laughed because my parents were concerned that my story reflected how I felt when really, I was only trying to recreate what interested me. I realized that all I was after was a reaction: first, out of myself and second, out of an audience.
The focus has changed slightly since then. As an adult, I do my best to make sure that all my work is for God first and the audience second. Even if the images I produce don’t always reflect that, if it makes one other person happy or encourages someone to get to work and utilize their gifts, then I’ve done my job. As artists, we’re fortunate to have been given gifts that allow us to inspire, heal and change lives, and I believe it’s our responsibility to share those gifts with others.
And if I can get a reaction out of somebody, then yeah, bonus points 🙂
Thank you so much for your time. God bless, have a great day and no matter what, keep going.
