It had been three years, five months and twenty seven days since he had walked into my life, and two months and fifteen days since he had left me on the roadside two miles west of a Wal-Mart supercenter. That last screaming match had been a doozie, and I gave as good as I got, but the one true thing he ever told me was that I couldn’t take him in a fight, so when he started swinging his fists I opened the door and jumped out, and that bastard never even slowed down on the way out of town. But I didn’t tell him everything either. He didn’t know about the second cell phone I bought two months before with the last crumbs of my savings, and he didn’t know the small town I suggested we visit is the same small town my best friend moved to last year, the same best friend he told me not to talk to because he was scared shed take me away from him. I can’t believe I listened. And I’ll never forget that she never gave up on me.

When I called her a month before that last fight from the hospital after my last overdose she told me to come stay with her. She had a free couch and knew some places looking to hire, and she said I could get a fresh start there. Here. I was here now. I called her from that roadside, and she took me to Wal-Mart to get a few changes of clothes and a pillow. A week after I got here I got a job waitressing at a mom and pop diner. The pay isn’t close to good but they treat me well, let me take home leftover food, and it leaves my morning open. Sometimes my friend and I hang out at the library or hike along the river, but she works a 9 to 5 job so I’m usually left to my own devices. Most mornings I spend in the gym, lifting and running, or at the dojo, learning karate. Because there’s one more thing I never told him. I will see him again, and the next time I do I won’t be scared of those fists.

This is my take on the “Postcards From The Past…” assignment. I found this postcard on https://postsecret.com/, which is an archive of anonymous postcards people have sent in with their darkest secrets and no return address. I was struck by the strong thirst for revenge that laced so few words, and I tried to draw on my own past experiences as well as those of friends to make a believable and interesting story about a young woman trying to heal from an abusive relationship and start a new life with a strong support system. The postcard showed someone practicing martial arts, so I included that in the story, but I also thought about what I do to recover from stressful or traumatic situations as well as my relationship with my best friend.

You and your friends are really excited to see Eddie Murphy’s newest movie, Beverly Hills Cop. While walking toward the movie theatre, you decide to snap this photo.  On your way there you noticed a paper that was headlined Mikhail Gorbachev: new ruler of the Soviet Union. You don’t know a lot about politics, but you know that this is important. Your friend just asked you if you think that Michael Jordan is going to win rookie of the year. You say, “No doubt”.

from https://allthatsinteresting.com/80s-pictures#1

My mom was always weird.

Every time she saw an advertisement on the television, she HAD to get it. It did not matter what it was…bug killer…workout equipment…toys for us kids even if we didn’t want them.

One day the mailman delivered a package for her, and she excitedly opened it up at the breakfast table. I’m glad my dad captured this moment for us, with a camera that my mom had impulsively bought.

No worries in sight

Huge hair and kid-less 

The 80s for Flor

I chose to write a haiku about my mom after I found this picture of her from the 80s, sitting on a gate in Long Beach, California. I feel this picture embodies her rebellious side as a young adult, the “keep gate closed” sign as she sits on the gate I think shows who she was in the 80s and what the 80s embodied. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20150916032846/http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/postcards-from-the-past/ (4 ½ stars) 

Since I was a young, my mom would show me pictures and things from not just my past, but also her past. She would show me old letters and photos, etc. I may not be good at history, but I loved it nonetheless. There is power that comes with the past, and sometimes an extreme heaviness.

When we look into the past, we are told with facts. Especially in history in classes. I never learn the deeper aspects to those truths, like what about the families? The sacrifices made? How was life back then? How did this person cope with this certain issue? What about the person’s truth? In the end, I want to know more than what’s told to us. It might just me a “me thing”, but I have always loved learning about individual people. Whether or not they’re in person right at that moment or from 300 years in the past, it’s always so intriguing to me. It might be just because I’m a psychology nerd.

This assignment was finding a letter, memo, postcard, etc from the past and writing the backstory to it. I decided to look for letters from the 80’s, since it is the theme of this semester. This did take awhile to do. Since people wrote letters to the 80’s, so it made looking for letters from that time that much more difficult. I found a couple different letters, but none stuck with me as much as the ones I found below. As soon as I found that one, I felt I could write a story about this.

I know this is a true story, but obviously I don’t know the couple’s experience with each other. I was going to spin a crazy long story about the couple writing the notes to each other when they were just friends, but I decided against that. I felt that something shorter like a haiku would give their relationship that much more depth than a novella. Though, this took awhile. My horrible English made it difficult to find replacements for simple words.

But without further ado, I hope you appreciate my limited creativity trying to work it’s hardest

Postcards From The Past…

Description: “Find an old archive: letter, postcard, photograph, memo, computer document, e-mail. Then, form a story surrounding the piece. Develop a general, basic narrative or back story and characters. It doesn’t have to be super long; it can be a haiku or a novella–your choice. Let the past inspire you!
My example is a postcard from World War I. It was discovered unsent and from an unknown author, and attached to the postcard was a small poppy, addressed to the soldier’s love. I wrote a poem in Spanish about the postcard, and you can read the poem and its translation at this link:
http://www.kaileyck.com/ds106/postcards-from-the-past/
Have fun!”

I found the tweet alone through this article by Ysabel S. Vitangcol.

To my dearest George,
I pour my heart out to you
with every pen stroke.

I’m so blessed to say
That you are my closest friend.
There’s no one like you.

But what we knew not-
That these feelings would grow intense,
Soon, we’d be in love.

With that being said,
Just know I won’t leave you.
I’ll be here always.

She closed the browser window and leaned back in her chair. Years ago she would of had to gotten a piece of paper and pen, and then driven to the post office to ship off her letter, but now, now she was able to send a message to her best friend in a matter of seconds. Georgina smiled as she got up for her chair. Email. She thought. How legendary! She could communicate with her best friend who lived in Spain in a matter of seconds and she could see what she had previously written. And the best part was that she didn’t have to wait seconds to hear back from her childhood best friend. She closed her laptop and went to change her shoes.

For this assignment, we had to find an old letter, email, document, postcard, etc., and then write a short story around the piece. I found an email I wrote way back in 2012 (when I first opened an email account). It was addressed to a cousin who lived in another state. I decided to write a short story about a girl who uses email for the first time. She is mesmerized by the ability to communicate with her best friend in a matter of seconds.

Overall, this assignment was pretty fun to do. As a creative writer, I am glad that this week we had to solely writing based assignments.

I had a bit of trouble first finding some literature to write this post on because I was searching for legible post cards but once I abandoned that idea and searched for letters I found a plethora of information.

The letter that I chose to write on is pretty amazing and I will link it here for everyone else to read. The story behind the letter is the recollection from a soldier to his wife about a battle that was fought in the civil war. When you hopefully read the letter for yourself you will see how crazy the battlefield can be for these soldiers as the author speaks about being engaged by enemy sharpshooters and that he was so distraught “language would fail me to describe the scene”.

Another amazing quote that I ran across that I thought helped to really display what the atmosphere must have been like for these soldiers says “the way the bullets whistled around us is better imagined than described”. I can not even imagine what it must be like to be in a battle where the bullets are so close to your head you can hear them snap by.

Follow the link below to read for yourself. The letter is on page 6.

https://www.nps.gov/anti/learn/education/upload/Letters%20and%20Diaries%20of%20Soldiers%20and%20Civilians.pdf

4.5 Stars   To my sister Sara Sparkle. From Rose Sparkle (her maiden name before she got married and changed her name to Rose King). On the postcard, it reads, “Hey sister, hope you’re having a good time back at home with the family. I’m in Nashville getting ready to make it big in country […]