MUSEUM MEMORIARUM

“Manifesto” is quite an intimidating word; it brings to mind German philosophers, deeply flawed ideals and arguments with deluded politics students. But it’s not the same in this context. Here it means, “Why do I write?” and before now I would not have been able to tell you. Before I started this course, I struggled once again to find myself as a writer. Up until that point, I had only written academically and had not written creatively in my own time for months. I was so scared that I had lost my ability to write that I avoided writing all together. People told me that writing again would be like riding a bike. This notion drove me to near hysterics because I could not ride a bike even if someone had held me at gun-point. It’s the pedalling, never quite grasped it. But something happened that finally gave me the boost I needed to unlock my inner creativity:
My dad died.
Yeah, heavy shit.
What good is a writer without trauma hey? In all honesty, I don’t remember the two weeks that followed my dad’s death. The chain of events went as followed: got the news, smoked myself to near death, and drove to uni with my mom and grandma. I wasn’t focused on what was happening, but rather all that had happened. Memories, both big and small, led me down a journey of reflection. My father’s passing and the fact that this is my last year at university were both proverbial stabs to the heart and I saw everything so much clearer; just how much everything had changed, how much I had changed. I had not been keeping track of my journey. Now I write with renewed purpose. I write to remember, I write to immortalise, I write so that I will never again question why I write. I write because not only am I really bloody good at it, I write because this is as close to reliving the past as I will ever get. I shall erect a grand museum and fill it with articles of the past so that all may ponder and reminisce.
I write to honour my dad, who never stopped believing in me. I write to keep my ability alive.
But also – just to reiterate – I am really good at it.