I am not sure if I have always known that I had a soft spot for words. I do have some sort of recollection of when I was a young one, writing short stories from my imagination. My dad would often read them and praise me for this raw talent. I guess all the self-esteem issues I was carrying with me scarred me from seeing what my dad saw.
Sending text messages and emails to my friends, I would often get told of this knack for using words I possessed. I then over the years developed a love for writing special notes to special people and realised I preferred written communication over voice.
Being very opinionated, I usually have much to say on my
Malebo Gololo Facebook account. I am humbled by the many inboxes I receive almost on a daily basis of friends pleading with me to write a book. They all believe that somewhere within my soul, I have been gifted with the art of writing.
Wrestling with how others experience my words and how I view them. I needed to reach a level of congruency between my thoughts and their admiration of my work.
After this tug of war within me throughout 2014, I finally decided to yield to the gift. I believe that when the student is ready, the teacher will arise. I am ready and I already feel all sorts of conspiracies coming together for me regarding my love for literature and writing. I recently attended a creative writing discussion with Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile. With a humble soul, he reaffirmed the notion that one should not write with the market in mind because that has a way of taking you away from the spark that informs your writing. I was particularly moved when he mentioned that writing should never be about money but about sharing the gift with the world. The final words that caused a shifting for me were "Any writer needs to get to a point where they have cultivated their own writing voice. That many would be able to spot their work just through reading it. So a good author knows that all they have to do is keep on writing. Just write and write some more."
And so for this reason, I have committed myself to writing. Come with me...
