“I don’t want you to decipher anything… or to analyze. I
want you to tell me what you felt when you read it.”
That line is very simple and probably one of the lines that
lately affected me. It was said to me by a dear friend when she asked me about
my opinion of a line from a book (if you are reading this, sorry I used your
line without asking permission first, I just need to share this realization).
Can you remember the moment we transition from ‘read the
lines’ to ‘read between the lines’? As a child, we were taught to read and
understand the simplest meaning of a sentence.
“Ana, may gatas ka pa
sa labi.”
It means that Ana still has milk residue on her lips. And
then you have to underline the noun, verb, etc. The main objective here is to
get the gist and instruction, if there’s one, of every sentences.
On reading comprehension test your teacher probably gave you
short story and the normal question were, “Who bought medicine for Lorna?” A
typical WH- question and they are all so easy to answer! Like, more of that
question please.
And then later on, they helped us develop our critical
thinking skills. One-word answer to a WH- question won’t suffice anymore. You
need to elaborate it more, make a sentence like,
“Gabbie bought the medicine for CJ.”
Next, they makes us understand the hidden meaning of some
lines. They start us with introducing salawikain, sawikain, and bugtong and
make us answer fill in the blank questions such as:
“Kapag may itinanim, may _________.”
To further it more, they let us give our own meaning and
interpretation to some phrases.
“Ana, may gatas ka pa sa labi’
Now, that means that Ana doesn’t have milk residue. It now
means that Ana is still young.
“Gabbie bought the medicine for CJ.”
Gabbie now bought CJ’s medicine because their other siblings
are too busy with their own lives to take care of their youngest sibling.
They taught us to read between the lines, to overthink
things, because apparently that’s how life seems to be. One step forward and
you know the end result of it since every scenarios that might have happened
already played inside your head.
We eventually realize that people might be saying different
from what they really wanted to say so we have to watch for other clues with
the way they say it; intonation, hand gesture, and facial expression.
And then when it comes to writing they taught us to write
and read technically. I’m no pro at writing, just a disclaimer, I’ll just share
to you the common things that flow naturally while writing.
In news writing, your piece should be precise, timely, and
should contain the gist of the story with the shortest number of words. In
literary rhyming is very important, like a vital part. In features writing it
encourages writer to make their piece of work as relatable to the reader as
much as possible, freestyle kumbaga.
My writings lean more on features writing. It’s not that I
hate other type of writing that are more technical, it’s just that I want my
work to reach someone as quickly as possible. I want to convey the message the
easiest way.
So when my friend asked me what I think about the line from a
book, I gave my technical view. I told her that the line was a bit vague for me
to decipher. That the words used are too deep for me to comprehend easily.
To be honest I had difficulty really ‘reading’ it because
it’s too metaphorically written. And then when she said those line, it hit me.
We are so engrossed to know what the writer wanted to say,
we are so curious, that sometimes we forget that some writer wanted you to feel
something too. Just to feel.
Academe, at our young age, taught us that everything has a
meaning if we only know how to ‘read’ it but I think it forgot to teach us that
some things are here to make us feel.
We don’t need to fill our mind solely with answers to
questions. We should also focus on our emotions. We might understand the word
‘sorry’ and its meaning but can we say and use it with empathy? We focus on
knowing things than feeling. And maybe that’s how we hurt more easily.
We think, think, and think. And then we forget to feel.
In this world full of know-it-all wannabes, be a feel-it-all
britney-b**ch. (Lol, don’t know why I wrote that Hahaha)
There’s nothing wrong with knowing things, you just have to
also know that you have to feel too.
Some lines are destined to be vague, and we might never know
the answer as to why but we have to deal with it.
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