Last year I followed an option called 'Desert Island Discs'. If you have never heard of this, it is the following thing: a British radio program that has been going on since 1950 or something. A host interviews famous people. The guests are asked to think of 5 'discs' or records that they would like to bring if they were to be a cast away. Furthermore, what luxury item and what book they would like to bring to a desert island. The items and songs they picked had to have personal meaning (of course) and had to describe their lives. In this option our last assignment was to write an essay, letter, do and interview or what ever form we wanted to give it, and do the same, basically. So I wrote a letter. That's what I do best. You can read it down here. Also, I included the commentary I got. And I want to reflect on this commentary, because I am so happy with the received commentary.
Just a fun little anecdote: Linda taught this option and she just started the lessons without introducing herself. Me as a silly-first year (that's how I felt after this) ask her: 'I'm sorry, but we all introduced ourselves, but I don't know who you are..' And this 2nd or 3rd year girl kind of gasped and looked over at me and said: 'You don't know who Linda is?' And I just kind of fell silent and mumbled: 'Eh, no, am I supposed to?' I thought I missed some super important memo about this woman. And Linda kindly introduced herself, but was also a little taken aback that I did not know her. All fun and games, but I had never heard of her before. To give this story a purpose: Linda was head of the English department at my school. She is involved in a lot of things. I just had never heard of her or seen her before. So I was forgiving and all is good. and now we can laugh about it. I now know her alright :)
Here is my letter:
November 25, 2015
Dear me,
I’m writing you this letter to remind
you of your life up to now. It has been great so far. You just celebrated your
22nd birthday. And time is a strange thing.
I’m also writing you this letter so you
don’t forget why you started listening to music in the first place and how it
can take you places you have never been before. Like a mighty castle or a place
you can call home or a desert island.
Now we are on the subject, if you were to be a cast away. What would you take? What book? What item that is special to you? I might tell you about those as well. It might help to build your story.
I want to tell you about another song that I choose to tell you something about your life up till now. I choose the song You Steady My Heart by Kari Jobe. This is a godly[LB20] song. That means it is about God. And it kind of summarizes the time from your when you were 18 till, now I would say.
In the chorus she sings: “Even when it hurts, even when it’s hard, even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You, because I know that You are, lover of my soul and healer of my heart.”
And this is so true for me. A long time it felt like a lot around you was falling apart. Feeling like I needed a new place to call home was one of the parts of it. And I felt like I wasn’t succeeding. But I know I can always go to God.
In the chorus she sings: “Even when it hurts, even when it’s hard, even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You, because I know that You are, lover of my soul and healer of my heart.”
And this is so true for me. A long time it felt like a lot around you was falling apart. Feeling like I needed a new place to call home was one of the parts of it. And I felt like I wasn’t succeeding. But I know I can always go to God.
I think the time has come to talk about books. And I think you could literally write a book about books. As music changed your life, so did books. One day it just grabbed you. Reading books gave you an inside to [LB21] all of the worlds. Worlds you never thought you could live in. But there they were, in the form of a book. You could be a wizard or princes [LB22] or a preacher or a librarian. You could be everything you ever wanted. Just like writing stories, accept[LB23] they were already written. In books you had a chance of being something greater than yourself. In books you could make a change. You could fight the system! How wonderful is that. How amazing is that actually. To get to be the change you want to be.
I found it so hard to end this letter. Because what is a song that summarizes your life. That is a lot of responsibly for one song. I thought about Belle Demoiselle by Christophe Mae or I Choose Jesus by Moriah Peters.
I think I am going to go with Ara Batur by Sigur Ros. This song is just beautiful, moving, and hopeful. That is how I want to end this letter.
Now we are on the subject, if you were to be a cast away. What would you take? What book? What item that is special to you? I might tell you about those as well. It might help to build your story.
I want to tell you about another song that I choose to tell you something about your life up till now. I choose the song You Steady My Heart by Kari Jobe. This is a godly[LB20] song. That means it is about God. And it kind of summarizes the time from your when you were 18 till, now I would say.
In the chorus she sings: “Even when it hurts, even when it’s hard, even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You, because I know that You are, lover of my soul and healer of my heart.”
And this is so true for me. A long time it felt like a lot around you was falling apart. Feeling like I needed a new place to call home was one of the parts of it. And I felt like I wasn’t succeeding. But I know I can always go to God.
In the chorus she sings: “Even when it hurts, even when it’s hard, even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You, because I know that You are, lover of my soul and healer of my heart.”
And this is so true for me. A long time it felt like a lot around you was falling apart. Feeling like I needed a new place to call home was one of the parts of it. And I felt like I wasn’t succeeding. But I know I can always go to God.
I think the time has come to talk about books. And I think you could literally write a book about books. As music changed your life, so did books. One day it just grabbed you. Reading books gave you an inside to [LB21] all of the worlds. Worlds you never thought you could live in. But there they were, in the form of a book. You could be a wizard or princes [LB22] or a preacher or a librarian. You could be everything you ever wanted. Just like writing stories, accept[LB23] they were already written. In books you had a chance of being something greater than yourself. In books you could make a change. You could fight the system! How wonderful is that. How amazing is that actually. To get to be the change you want to be.
I found it so hard to end this letter. Because what is a song that summarizes your life. That is a lot of responsibly for one song. I thought about Belle Demoiselle by Christophe Mae or I Choose Jesus by Moriah Peters.
I think I am going to go with Ara Batur by Sigur Ros. This song is just beautiful, moving, and hopeful. That is how I want to end this letter.
Of course my story begins at the
beginning. It is a very strange thing for me to look back at[LB1] my childhood, like I’m looking at another life or at least other
people. In my opinion my parents changed so much after the divorce. It seems to
me like they became different people.
The first song I choose brings me back
years and years. I feel like this song is one of the earliest memories I have
of music.
I choose to tell you something about my
childhood and especially my parents, with the song Only Time by Enya.
As I hear the first tunes of that song, my
mind wanders back to when things were normal and uncomplicated.
My mother would wear a lot of baggy
clothing in those memories. I now know that she always kind of struggled with
her shape and I guess she didn’t know how to dress herself or she wasn’t
really in [LB2] to the whole fashion thing. Her priorities as a mom in the ‘90[LB3] probably lay elsewhere.
She would have extremely short dark blond
hear, shaved up just a bit at the back. She would have a really strong perm,
which when I think back wasn’t really all that flattering. But you don’t really
think about that as a child.
She was a loving mom, maybe somewhat timid.
A little shy maybe. Or maybe she thought her opinion didn’t matter much. But at
the same time she was always very open and caring.
We always had guests over. Friends were
always staying for dinner. Of course there were birthday parties. Our house was
always full. I later learned that this was because she never had this when she
was little and she wanted the best for us. I’m very thankful for my mom. With
everything she’d been through in life and all the struggles she had to face, I
think she did an amazing job in raising us.
My dad: now he was opinionated. But I might
be mixing memories from then with memories about the man I know now. He is
opinionated, but a very happy man. He worked as a policeman, which was very fun[LB4] . He always had stories about ‘catching the bad guys’.
I now know that his work as a policeman was
not always ‘childlike exciting’. ‘Of course not’ I would say now. But as a 6 year old[LB5] , to have a policeman as a dad was super exciting.
Although he worked all day, he was what a
father should be like: in for silly games, very loving, always in for a big
cuddle and of course always in for a good wrestling match.
I am a lot like my father, character wise.
So I think that’s why I really missed him when he left us when my parents got a
divorce. He didn’t leave us behind, fortunately. But he did leave to live
somewhere else. My mom, my sisters and me, we stayed in my childhood home.
Which I think was a very wise decision.
As I said, Only Time brings me back to when
everything was ‘normal’ and very uncomplicated. Because given everything, a
divorce makes things very complicated.
That’s where your next song comes in. It
might come as a surprise to you that it is not a song from the band Tokio
Hotel. I will explain in a little bit. Nevertheless they will always have a
special place in my heart. However cliché it might sound, in a way they saved
my life. When I was about 14 my parents got a divorce. And I just dived
headfirst in[LB6] the world that was Tokio Hotel. That’s also where my life as a
writer really picked up. I wrote stories on end about this world where I was
someone special. I could create my own story, instead of living one that had[LB7] been writing for me.
I want to get back to my second song
choice. I told you I wouldn’t choose a song by the band Tokio Hotel. I will
choose a song that might be the entire[LB8] opposite genre. Taylor Swift. Also someone who’s[LB9] music influenced me a lot when I was in my teens. Her music, on the
other hand, changed me in a whole [LB10] different way. I will
choose the song Our Song. This was one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar[LB11] and I taught myself the
chords. It is everything I like in a song: It is upbeat, fun, simple and it
tells a story. I think her music had its own way of saving me.
As I
love playing my guitar, it is only natural when I first started playing guitar[LB12] , to choose songs that are
simple to play. And as it turned out, Taylor Swifts[LB13] songs were just perfect.
I think music is just as important as lyrics. Undoubtedly, you will understand
that I like here[LB14] lyrics very much. Maybe
not so much that they are always about boys, but more so the fact that they
tell a story. And I think that as a songwriter, getting your audience to
understand why you choose certain words and notes together is very important. As[LB15] a writer myself, I know
how difficult it is to write a strong story that holds together from beginning till[LB16] end. In addition to that
I know that it is very rewarding to have the ability to reach out to people by
means of a story. And if you only [LB17] knew how much a musical
story, in other words: a song, has an impact on people. It is amazing.
This is also the part of your life is where
your special item comes in. That time your my [LB18] life, you were not going
anywhere without a notebook and a pen. And that’s why I am writing to you now,
dear me. Because I think you would still take a notebook and a pen if you were
to be a cast away.
I know I would. My head would explode if I
did not have my
trusty [LB19] notebook and pen. And if I
didn’t have a notebook I would write on whatever paper I could find. In church
I would write on the announcements sheet, in restaurants I would write on the
placemat, at a festival I would write on a tissue. You get the idea.
Choosing a book is a particularly hard
one. I couldn’t for the life of me choose one book. But now it actually
involves my life, because without a book I probably wouldn’t survive on that
desert island we were talking about earlier.
I have done a lot of thinking and I know
I will choose to take the Bible. The bible is all of the books into one book.
This book, as I said, still changes my life every day. This book had wisdom,
history, explanation, faith, poetry, anger, confusion, understanding, but most
of all love. This book tells you about your God, who is your father. He created
you and he loves you. I know you can go anywhere, even without a bible, and He
would still be with you. But if I had the choice, I would take my bible.
Love,
Yourself
My commentary:
You are a
writer, indeed. You’ve written a lovely letter in which you motivate your
choices well. It turned out to be a very interesting read, but also a
pleasurable one. Such a nice idea to write a letter to yourself and it worked
very well.
I don’t
think you made a conscious effort to
improve your letter writing techniques – you just went and wrote a letter.
Perhaps a tip for you would be to pay attention to paragraphing correctly. It
would give your letter a little more structure. All in all: well done.
PS. I had
never heard of Sigur Ros; thanks for putting that right!
Below are
some notes on grammar etc.
I think this is going to be one of my earliest memories of good interaction with a teacher and also feedback that really helps. The only thing I have to admit, is that I did not do anything with this feedback, yet. So that's why I am putting it on this blog: to remind myself.
Less than three,
A teacher to be,
Hannah
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