word nerd...

yes, i am a word nerd and i am happy to admit it.... i often read the dictionary for fun, in fact, i own 4 of them (my fave being the canadian version of the oxford dictionary) and when online, i find i'm on www.dictionary.com at least every couple of hours. (also has something to do with the fact that i'm a horrendous speller!)

when it came time to go to university - i chose a journalism school and i actually have a degree in journalism (!?!). as long as i can remember, i wrote. when i used to draw my little stick figures as a kid - i used to also write a sentence or two on each page saying what the picture was about. then i moved into telling strange nonsensical stories to whoever would listen (usually my dog sam) and in grade 5 i wrote a story about a little boy getting lost in a grocery store. and i remember the teacher calling me up after class and asking me who helped me write it. i know i was scared to death to be talking to the teacher (i was a very timid kid) but i told him the truth and said no one had helped me, that i wrote it myself. he finally then told me it was very very good. i wish i'd kept it. i'd like to have a copy of the first story i wrote that got a good review - but because the teacher freaked me out so much, i ripped it up and threw it out after i got it back. strange, the shame that adults can introduce to impressionable minds.... even when that shame shouldn't be owned by anyone... so, mr. sawchen - if you're ever reading this - i hope that you have stopped scaring kids out of their minds.

to this day i write. not just this silly little blog - but i used to write short stories, i have started no less than 3 novels (then again, who hasn't?), i occasionaly write essays for fun, but most of all, i write poetry and prose. i rarely share my stuff with others (after all, who really wants to read the diahreah of my brain) so i have no idea if it appeals to anyone but myself. :-) i do know that from time to time, i'll read back something i've written and think to myself that it is pretty good and that i'd be happy to buy it in a store.

but i digress - the topic i'm really exploring is how i ended up this way. besides the predictable answer of personality and predisposition - i believe it had a lot to do with the books i read as a gurl. that and the fascinating fact that my very first spoken word was "horse". that's right, there was no 'dadda' or 'mamma' for this one - no, i decided to say a word that must of been a shock to my parents! i'm sure they were hopeful that their first-born would say something vaguely related to them - instead my vocal voyage began with the utterance of word that described an animal that had nothing to do with my family (we didn't have horses until i got old enough to care for my first horse, jenny - quickly followed by sandy, sham, shyloh and shasta, yes, i have a thing for the letter 's'). my first word also began a life-long love affair with horses - to this day, nothing makes me happier than the smell of a horse or the touch of a velvety nose...

but back to those formative books. as a child, i recall reading lots of mother goose, various fairy tales and brother's grimm stories - just like most other children. one book in particular that took me from toddler to tween was "lamont, the lonely monster". it was published by Hallmark cards and i remember reading it over and over and over again. it was a pop-up book that told the story of a monster (lamont) who was in search of a friend. he ended up accidentally scaring people, which made him cry (he was a very sensitive monster) until he was told to check out nearby 'monster mansion'. there he encountered monster-racism as the witch wanted to cast a spell on him, the vampire promised to bite him and the ghosts evaporated rather than chat. lamont finally found a friend (uriah the heap) who it turned out was the occupant everyone in the mansion was afraid of - turns out the reason uriah was so scary was because he had a little bit of misplaced anger over the fact that he didn't have a friend either. all together now, "awwwww". :)

as i grew older my love of books and words remained strong. i remember spending hours with the silliness of shel silverstein, the family closeness of laura ingalls wilder , being inspired by strong and independent pippi longstocking, being entertained by intrepid nancy drew, understanding the promise of the black stallion, learning the heartache of equine love with my friend flicka and all the books written by mary o'hara and marguerite henry and becoming absorbed by the life-changing secrets of the chronicles of narnia.

i think this will be my first two-part blog entry... i've run on long enough today! but before i go - i want to write a quick thank you to my parents, my grandma's, aunt chris, aunt rianne and amazing teachers like mrs. gobel, mr. hamilton and mr. macfarlane for for seeing and nurturing that little seed of a writer/reader within me.

[music | jeremy fisher, "on par"]