A Letter to my grandma
Dear Grandma,
This is a pretty odd concept for me to be writing about right now, because of the fact that you’ve been dead for four years. Ironically I continue to think of you as the years fly by and especially wonder what you’d think of my life at this present date and time. As I pray in the very room you died in, I send you imaginary weekly “letters” sending you updates on the family and life you missed out on. I wish we talked more, I wish I spent more time with you and most importantly; I wish I spoke Bosnian so you understood me. These are the many regrets I live by but this time instead of ignoring your impending death and erasing the memories of you sick at home, slowly dying from my mind, I’m going to introduce you to my life, for once.
So I’m a senior in high school now, old huh? I know what you’re thinking and we should address it right away, “ Why aren’t you married?” what can I say, I’m just too smart for any boy-frankly it’s my mind,it’s too intimidating for any boy really. Yet it is that mind in question that has landing a prime spot in the Syracuse University English class at Proctor High school! Okay you don’t understand what that means but let’s just say I’m attending one of the best and most expensive universities, for free, in high school-basically It’s mind-blowing, well for a nerd like me at least. So what am I doing in such an extraordinary, yet stressful class? I write about my understanding of the world around me, through literature and other medians, our last unit we discussed was the concept of place. Among the large, broad location choices in Utica I was one of the only students to choose a restaurant, before you laugh or do a high-pitched granny cackle at me consider this; I ate oriental food, FOR AN ENGLISH PROJECT.
Well it wasn’t that easy, in fact it took many weeks of assignments to prep me for this huge leap into the real world (gasp) assignments varring from Think Papers on three different author’s pieces, reflections and to top it all off an amazing Mini dialogue with all three authors in it! These pieces helped me heavily double dip and repurpose quotes into my monster of a jump starter essay. Looking back on the many hours and late nights I spent on these assignments I thank god for the dedication I spent that actually happened to work out in my favor.
As I write this letter to you, about the definition of place I can’t help but to stop and realize that all along I’ve understood the concept of place as the feeling and personal definition of the sense of an area. Since my connotation of place is the impact a person has on it, along with the back and forth learning experience a place and a person have on each other. Which means that my four years of sending symbolic letters to you meant that I had already gave you a place, of course in heaven where you belong but also in my heart and in my mind.
When my family lost you we lost our sense of home and tradition for a while, but now I realize that a place has meaning and passion to make it come to life over and over again, way after the many moves to come. Just as I continue to give life to the many writing pieces in SUPA, learning from the metaphorical children I bore. I would like you to know that my favorite section in my jump starter essay was my connection to the sense of home I chased when not only choosing my location to analysis but also in life as I continue to mature. I’m thankful for the defining place assignment I was given because of the reflection on my own life it gave me.
Finally my writing has not only created the hand-crafted essay I grow fund of, but also has given life to you once more.
Sincerely,
Ajsa Mehmedovic
