To Gido

So why bother?  Because I miss writing.  While I am fortunate enough to have a career where I am able to write for a living, it’s entirely factual and analytical.  I miss true creative writing.  Writing has been my “thing” for as long as I can remember.  When I was a kid, I would write poems for “fun” {weird, I know}.  And they absolutely had to rhyme.  I remember writing a poem for my mom for every single one of her birthdays until I thought I was too cool and had to ditch the poems.  She still has every poem I wrote her, and I must say that they are her most prized possession.  At least that’s what I think.

After I outgrew my must-rhyme-poems, I religiously kept a diary, which is probably one of my most prized possessions. It is awesome, because what on earth does a kid write about??  Apparently my eight-year-old life was so compelling that I had a diary entry for almost every day.  It really is funny to have some insight into your own mind as a child.  At least half of my autobiography is now done.

I eventually outgrew my diary writing mainly because I didn’t want my mom to ever find what I was writing about [hi mom! 🙂 ]  I went on to major in English during undergrad and now have a career where I write arguments for a living.  So needless to say, I desperately need a creative outlet.  {Enter} this blog.

While there are a lot of creative people in my family, I’m pretty sure I got my “writing gene” from my grandfather, who was an English teacher before immigrating to the United States from Egypt.  When he came to the U.S., he came alone so that he could set up shop and then send for my grandmother and their eight (yes, eight) children.  While apart from his family, he wrote love letters to my grandmother and was quite the charmer.  In his older age, he authored a bi-weekly column in the church’s newsletter, writing about whatever happened to be on his mind.

I lost my Gido (grandfather in Arabic) in December and miss him dearly, even though I feel like he’s still here.  So I figured what better way to rekindle my love of writing than by a post about my beloved Gido.  I love you Gido, and may you always watch over us.  Here’s to you.