Bloganuary Day 4

Hello there people of the world,

To be completely honest, I cannot recall having a toy that was my favourite. I have very little memory of me with toys. I know I had a doll here or there – but to say that I remember a specific toy that was my absolute favourite would be a damn lie.

That being said and cleared up, instead of buck-shuffling with a response to a question about my favourite toys, I default and say that I didn’t play with toys as a child.

Instead, I got a lot of books and items that I could read and I read them all. This was perhaps the start of my love for writing and reading as an adult.

Though I didn’t study ‘Writing’ at advanced stages of education , a big part of my life is writing. You should’ve been able to tell from all my blog posts and content outside of the blog. If you haven’t noticed, now I’m telling you.

To say that I had a favourite book or story would also be a damn lie. “Why?” – you may ask. Well, in truth, I cannot recall book names or story titles from my childhood. I’m not sure what happened for me to forget that aspect of my childhood, but I cannot remember.

Instead, I recall how I felt when I: learned a new word or when I was able to read a book on my own, or when I was able to make my own interpretations of the stories and question the characters and the plot.

Yes, as I child, I did those things. As an adult, I still do them!

Without even realising it, my life would be guided along the path of reading and writing. This blog, for instance, is a bi-product of my childhood and present day experiences, feelings about stories, and the lessons learned. Outside of blogging, I actually write. Me. A whole writer.

By its very definition and also by the standards of some pompous writers and “trained” people in the field, I’m not cut out for any type of writing. They’re not exactly incorrect. I didn’t study to write, I don’t have a piece of paper certifying that I studied writing. I must’ve learned s thing or two though. I wrote essays to pass exams so, that’s writing, no? Either way, I didn’t study to fall in the field of the broad brush media. But, here I am.

I purposely put myself in writing positions to learn and grow. I’ve also tried to maintain consistent in my practice, too. After all, to be really good at something, you can practice it daily and test it out as well.

I think I’m doing a might fine job, too.

I’ve had that ‘on the job’ kind of training which qualifies me (through my lens) to be bold enough to say that I am a writer.

Though there is much to learn, I am grateful to my parents and teachers for ensuring that I had many books. I’m happy that they helped me with my formation of tone, my enunciation, helping me to use my syllables and learn new words – their definitions and how to use them in a sentence. Their groundwork has helped me to develop my writing voice.

So, my favourite toy came in the form of books. The way you see a child’s eyes light up and their imagination run wild with toys is how it was (still is!) for me when I got/get new books, when I learned new words and how I could use them in my everyday encounters. I recall creating and recreating stories in my head after having read a book or learned a new word.

You see, as a child, I had issues differentiating between words like ‘chicken’ and ‘kitchen’ as well as ‘potato’ and ‘tomato’. So, the day I learned to say each word and understand them in their entirety was a joyous occasion. My journey to learning through books wasn’t a forced one either. If I struggled with aspects of reading and writing, the approach to helping me was patience and kindness. That in and of itself helped me along the journey.

My love and appreciation of books also gave me the courage as a child and even now as an adult to dream dreams that are deemed impossible to some. It also challenged/challenges me to question challenge the status quo.

On the downside, I would get so invested in stories that the disappointment of a finished book would wear on me. If my favourite character died, my emotional intelligence and empathy kicked into overdrive. As an adult, the same feelings and motions occur but they take place when I watch some really good play, television series or movies. The best ones, though, are the adaptation of books.

So yeah, there you have it. Though I’m sure I had toys that I can’t remember, none of them elicited feelings of joy and hope like books did and still does to this day.

What about you? What was your favourite toy as a child?

Signed with love.

The Suburban Girl JA