Story of Words
By Haroon Dean.
Reading is often described as a magical experience — but my first experience was different.
“Thhhhh — uh…” “Cuh-cuh-caa-aaaah-utt…” “in…” “thh-uh…” “h-aa-t!”
As I had just finished the book, I jumped up and ran to my mom yelling, “Mom! I just read! Mom! I just read!” I remember, a little Burmese kid wearing some sort of superhero shirt and red shorts, being smitten, absolutely astonished by the fact that I had just read.
I knew even then that reading didn’t come to me through some magic, or “jadoo,” or “sihr” — rather, I had worked for it by placing my tongue in the right areas of my mouth.
Suddenly, miraculously, the right sounds came out and I was pronouncing words — “The Cat in the Hat.”
As each season made its way into my life and the years passed by, the winds that blew to new pages brought about new meanings for words. I learned that words can be related, that they could be synonyms or brothers and sisters in my small mind. I found myself to be able to relate to words because I too had acquired a sibling, my new baby sister.
As I became closer friends with words and people, I learned from people how dangerous words could be. They could be as sharp as tiny daggers that make you feel as though your intellect was less, or as blunt as a hammer that leaves you feeling like you just got hit on your head with a bunch of cuss words. Words can also be like poison. At first they are harmless, until they slowly permeate the nooks and crannies of your mind. Poisonous words seep through the ears and gently sit in your head until anger and hate come right back out of your mouth. That’s when words get ugly.
But words are also beautiful. “I love you” sounds sweeter than sugar; a “thank you” can be more fulfilling than a hefty slice of birthday cake. I felt how “I’m proud of you” meant mountains, and how “great job, keep it up” felt like I was running and there was no kick in my rib telling me I needed to stop. I realized that a few lines of poetry could be as beautiful as the sunset, or that getting lost in the first couple paragraphs from a big book becomes getting lost in whole new worlds you never thought possible — worlds of talking lions, walking tin-men, wizards and witches, and the one of a girl living on a street called “Mango Street.”
Books are full of words that express powerful ideas — words that indubitably change us.
Haroon Dean is a fourth-year student at UC Berkeley majoring in comparative literature and guest writer at Bookselves. He enjoys late-night taco runs more so than reading literary theories, and is a SoCal native exploring the Bay Area.
Originally published at bookselves.wordpress.com on July 2, 2015.
