Initially

“Nothing Beautiful Asks For Attention” ~ Unknown

Dear You,

I am assuming that the average reader has come to this page to enlighten themselves on the mastermind of this blog.  Well, interested soul, fear no more, as I shall give you some insight into the hardwiring of my mature, yet strangely erratic brain.

My brain contains carefully constructed thoughts stored in a myriad of loosely organized files.  However, when walking through the serene hallways, sticky notes of neglected ideas lay around like pebbles by an ocean; the water kisses them several times, but few rarely make it out to sea.  They go up to your knees and swallow you whole – if you dig around, kernels of wisdom can be extracted out of the mass, with a few paper cuts, of course.

After the kernels are collected, they are processed, and then written on thick parchment in a tilted script.

Although this makes me seem like an individual of meticulous order, the average reader should not forget that this mastermind also has a heart.  Sending unpredictable weather to my office, my soul destroys all of my work at times. Anger causes piercing heat waves, searing the paper at the edges and working inwards.  With sadness, comes a weighted shower, causing the ink to bleed out, and trail through the hallways like a cursed river. Finally, over-excitement creates a frilly breeze that teases the words to fly into the world of recklessness.

As always, my rationale cleans up the mess.  She stands at the front of the room, evaluates the damage, and gets to work, drying the paper, scrubbing the linoleum floors, among other things.  By the end of the day, the order is somewhat restored, and she can progress again. This time, however, her hands are sliced infinitely, making it difficult to recognize where the fingers meet the palm.  

Now, the average reader will wonder: what is the purpose of these files?  Am I collecting infinitesimal amounts of stardust for personal satisfaction, or to burn everything in the end, a pile of hard-earned ashes?

When I answer the average reader, I tell them that wisdom is the food my brain consumes.  However, you are not the average reader. You, my friend, are not merely here to “enlighten yourselves on the mastermind of this blog”, but to dissect its attributes, observe its symbolism, finally forming a collage of me.  To you, I say that these files are being stored with one intent, and one intent only: to compose a book, representing my life, my struggles, and my final destiny.

I plan on writing this book when the pieces of parchment held between my ears explode out of its cage.  By then, wrinkles will be painted on me, like the creases in the bark of a redwood, and my trunk will kneel slowly into the water: a sign of weakness.  However, my writing branch will remain strong with youthful energy; it will write eloquently of the great things I have accomplished, while still embracing my lackings.  The branch will take papers from my office, and choosing the best lines to keep, like gems in the night sky. By then, my office is emptying and the paper mache sticky notes will leave through the drains, thoughts forgotten in the mass chaos.  When the branch lifts its pen from the sky, I will know that I have done what I am here to do.

For now, with a little patience, I will collect kernels of wisdom, so that my book will evolve into something beautiful and worth reading in the future.

From,

Your Average Mastermind

To answer the question in a candid manner, the purpose of this blog is to share some of the files stored in my brain to the rest of the world.  Although many people may not see it, the ones who do can read, learn, and grow their own collection by being inspired by mine.  After all, this is how I expand my library as well.

This blog also acts as an outlet for my creative energy, as rarely am I able to convert the abstract shards of glass in my head into astounding pieces of literature.  Hopefully, with practice, my crawl morphs into a steady walk and finally a full-fledged sprint. When my breath gets heavy, I will gradually come to a standstill, dip my foot into a pot of purple ink, and place a period at the end of my sentence.  Then, I will start to crawl again, looking at the last journey as validation to continue this one.

The theme and the quote are carefully selected to depict an individual of specific values.  The featured image is beautiful because of the overall tranquility; it is supposed to complement the quote, as the viewer is not indirectly coerced to praise its composition.  Thus, beautiful things only get attention because it is never asked of by them.

Now that you know why I am here, I will allow you to put a name to the personality that I have carefully laid on this platform.

My name is Nazeefa, and I prefer to suggest simplicity through the way I act and present myself to the world.  I am an extroverted introvert, choosing to rest on the fringes of society and dipping into the commotion when curiosity beckons me.  You will see through the progression of my blog, that I explore a variety of themes, but I do so in a safe manner, preferring to remain aloof towards the public, as a king would to his people.    

Although my priorities and actions match those of the average high school student, the temptation to poke my finger into the flame of the real world is sometimes dangerously volatile.  When this happens, I rein my pegasus in, and patiently stroke its wings until the fire leaves. However, the halter is starting to tear, and I will soon be leaving my cage, venturing wherever my ride leads me.  

In order to understand where I will go, you will need more information than what can be transferred through words.

If you need a sound, imagine euphonic melodies, swaying blissfully in the crisp breeze.

If you need a touch, imagine the skin of an American cow, soft, yet firm and unwavering.

If you need a taste, imagine biting into an apple pie fresh out of the oven; it will sear your mouth, but your taste buds will still tingle in delight.

If you need a scent, imagine a pang of citrus blanketed with a mild musk of lavender.

If you need a visual, imagine a small young lady sitting on a black leather couch, with her glasses off, taking in adventures much more exciting than her own.  

One day, she does plan on reading and writing hers as well.

First, however, she needs some time to grow.

Citations

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10 thoughts on “Initially

  1. Dear Nazeefa,

    After reading your About Me” post, I have been inspired to try and use some more poetic language in my own writing, so thank you for that. It was wonderful to read your enriching detail in the analogies referring to your thoughts and notes in your mind. The comparison to that of “pebbles by an ocean” was a clever one, as well as using the idea of different effects to the paper with regards to emotion. It’s apparent that you went for more of a sophisticated structure with complex sentences, and it came off well. It captures you, and what you were portraying, in an interesting way.

    Although I thought that your use of metaphors and analogies was quite interesting, I feel as though you intending to do so had it appear a bit too frequently, especially early in the piece. I’m referring to how you alluded to your brain’s storage as walking through a hallway with loose files around and then switched over to the scenery of an ocean and pebbles. Then, later on, you continued with:
    “if you dig around, kernels of wisdom can be extracted out of the mass, with a few paper cuts, of course.”
    This is a great metaphor, but I feel like referring back to the original analogy of paper confused me, coupled with the new idea of searching for kernels.

    That said, it was quite a joy to experience this writing. The amount of effort put in to polish this is definitely prevalent. Thank you for writing this great piece, and I definitely am looking forward to seeing more of your amazing work in the future.

    Sincerely,
    Zaid

    1. Dear Zaid,
      Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and leaving a trail of wisdom behind! The amount of feedback you gave is remarkable, which helped me notice where I could have improved.
      Imagery is my strength, but I tend to overuse it sometimes, I can see why it got confusing at places. I will work towards balancing the images deliberately to evoke specific emotions at the correct time.
      Once again, I appreciate your input.
      Sincerely,
      Nazeefa

  2. Dear Nazeefa,

    I really enjoyed your usage of metaphors and beautiful descriptions. For example, lines like “If you need a sound, imagine euphonic melodies, swaying blissfully in the crisp breeze” and “If you need a scent, imagine a pang of citrus blanketed with a mild musk of lavender” contains language that creates this sort of blissful, comforting image in the reader’s mind.

    Although you have all of this amazing writing, it does not feel as personal as I would have liked an About Me to be. I did really enjoy your metaphors, but I do think there was slightly too many so that it felt a little messy since you compared yourself to multiple things.

    I’m looking forward to see your blog get filled up with even more amazing pieces.

    Sincerely,
    Kayla

    1. Dear Kayla,
      Thank you for taking the time to read over my “About Me” and leave your thoughts. I truly appreciate how you picked apart my writing, allowing for me to improve in the future.
      I completely agree with your observation of the clumsiness of the metaphors. It has been made clear to me now that I am looking at it. This is one thing I plan to improve.
      I look forward to your feedback in the future!
      Sincerely,
      Nazeefa

  3. Dear Nazeefa,

    Thank you for writing such a wonderful piece for your About Me. I love how you merged poetry and paragraph-style text into a whole new format (don’t know if that was your intention, but that’s how I interpreted it). I also love the overall theme and aesthetic of your blog; suggested simplicity captures you in a way no other phrase can, and that was smart of you to do that. I especially love the metaphors compiled into a single poem at the end of your piece. Each line connects you to a specific sense, an it helped me understand you a little better. My favourite line(s) from the poem would be: “If you need a taste, imagine biting into an apple pie fresh out of the oven; it will sear your mouth, but your taste buds will still tingle in delight.” This was exactly how I felt reading your page.

    Though I loved this piece, I would have to agree with Kayla and Zaid. I think that if you used fewer metaphors, the piece would be easier to understand and the message would be more powerful.

    Nonetheless, I absolutely adored this piece; you’ve given me some great inspiration for future posts. I can’t wait to read what you have in store.

    Sincerely,
    Sadia

    1. Dear Sadia,

      Thank you for taking the time to read my “About Me” and leave positive comments, and places for improvement. The format was not my intention, but it just happened with the progression of this piece. I am glad that this unintentional decision was appreciated, so thank you.
      When I write, I think the description is weak, so I pile my writing with too many images, and I agree with all three of you that it is confusing.
      Once again, thank you for your input.

      Sincerely,
      Nazeefa

  4. Dear Nazeefa,

    This is the first time I have commented on your blog, and this post is impressive. Your style of writing, the tactics you employed to express yourself were well thought out. Also, this comment is for the ‘Then’ part of your About Me.

    I liked the connection back to the gladiators from Ancient Rome. I especially liked the sentence, ‘For they so carelessly missed the slight twitch of her muscles, dying to fight a little while longer’. This whole idea of enduring through your struggles and not being recognized for your efforts was quite powerful. Honestly, this whole piece revealed to me a different side to you, which I would have never expected from a first glance.

    My only recommendation would be to integrate even more quotes which connected back to the time period, such as the quote by Julius Caesar. Other than that, I really have nothing else.

    All in all, it’s great to see how you are finding your place within AP and how you’re strengthening your writing with Creative Writing.

    1. Dear Abhay,
      Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words. You are someone I look up to, and I am humbled that you enjoy reading my work.

      Also, I agree with you that I should have added more quotes to enforce the theme. Now that I think about it, they could have given me some more ideas while I was writing.

      I look forward to your comments!
      Sincerely,
      Nazeefa

  5. Dear Nazeefa,

    My comment is regarding your exceptionally candid “Finally” About Me. I loved how you started off with the definition of jouska and then continued to give your own definitions rather covertly; I thought that was very clever. Alluding to one of your other pieces, “Mathematics: Try and Calculate Me”, was very insightful, and I vow to write up some other pieces so I will be able to do the same. The internal conflict referred to in your poem is so relatable and so beautifully portrayed. I feel like it perfectly describes my frame of mind right now as well.

    Though I’m not the best advisor, I feel like your writing would have more flow and be easier to read if you used simpler words in your writing. I understand that the words have a certain poetic significance, but in some places like in the line “amalgamation of calculated contradictions,” the line feels like a mouthful and adds too much sophistication, whereas your writing is already so rich in details and imagery.

    All in all, I loved how honest and insightful this piece was and how much heart there is behind it. Your pieces are so deeply inspiring to me; I read this piece of yours so many times over and every single time I found something new to relate to or a captivating tidbit of imagery to ponder! I look forward to analyzing your extremely well-developed website and learning from your striking works.

    Cheerio,
    Rida

    1. Dear Rida,
      Thank you so much for your kind words. It really does mean a lot to me that you took the time to read my about me multiple times because it makes writing worth it. I can tell that you are a great writer simply by how well structured your comment is!
      I agree with you about the usage of simpler words. This is something that I struggle with constantly and I appreciate you pointing this out to me.
      I look forward to your comments!
      Nazeefa

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