Stories from 2020 – 04

Prompt: Family – 07 | Start making a collection of favorite family stories.

When I was around three or four, my sister was lying on my parents’ bed and reading the paper. I was so jealous that she could read and I couldn’t, so I asked her if she’d be willing to teach me. 

I’m originally from Istanbul, Turkey and when it comes to reading, Turkish is a relatively easy language because it’s transliterated. Each letter has only one possible pronunciation and once you’ve learned your letters, the words are just about putting the letter sounds together.

Lying in that bed together on that day, my sister taught me how to read. At the time, she could never have known the size of the gift she gave me. Reading has been my favorite way to spend my time for the last forty years. I’ve read thousands of books in my life so far and I think about that moment all the time. About how she could just as easily have said no. About how it is one of my favorite memories with her.

I will forever be grateful to my sister for that gift.

---

This year I am planning to do something different than last year. Around last September, I stopped taking a lot of daily photos which then meant I also stopped scrapbooking. I have several of the Story Kit’s piled up. So I decided to switch gears a bit and see if I can use Ali’s prompts to tell my stories. I might (or might not) also turn them into scrapbook pages. In the meantime, I will just enjoy telling my stories.

Stories from 2020 is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2020 here. The prompts are from Ali’s Story Kits unless mentioned otherwise. I have started an instagram account for these, we’ll see if I keep it up.