Something Old, Something New...Day 22 of NaBloPoMo.

As any writer knows, writing can happen anywhere and inspiration at any time. So, we need notebooks, napkins, receipts, Post Its, etc., not to mention a working pen to jot lines or ideas that come to us. Technology helps as I use my MEMO function on my phone to keep ideas.

I have a stockpile of old journals, notebooks and scraps of paper that I keep and read and use (or reuse) in current writing. I came across one of my cutesy journals from 1999, 12 years ago.

One Post It buried in the pages of this bear riding a whale journal said,



“I was born with so much drive and ambition because it was transferred to me from my grandmother and mother—both of whom barely used it.” October 26, 1999

In many ways, I still feel this way. My grandmother who passed away this past May (at the age of 96) always told me to get an education and never “shack up” with a man. She told me that her father was satisfied that she could write her name and she ended up with a first grade education. This was 1921.

My mother always told me the same thing, she being a simple country girl in South Korea. She only received an 8th grade education, higher schooling being too costly for her family. This was 1964.

My mom and my paternal grandmother were smart, crafty women who could have achieved so much more than their domesticated existences. My mother will be turning 60 next year (don’t tell her I mentioned that) and has found a renewed sense of self, especially since my father’s death in 2007. Since then, she has received her U.S. Citizenship, a driver’s license and a new sense of freedom in her individual life on Guam. I miss her, but I know she is flourishing.

I am happy to take on the untapped potential of my lineage. I embrace it willingly and proudly. I can only hope that I don’t pass on unfulfilled dreams to my daughter, but inspire her to blaze her own trails.

ESTA LATER!