Posts Tagged ‘remembering’

lost on the other side of bradford

Posted: November 7, 2019 in flash fiction, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, Observations, overwhelming, Reality, reflecting, Short Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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I’m in the new flat. It’s so different to the old house, smaller, no gardens, just bricks. Outside it’s rows and rows of houses. Big, small, terraced, semis, detached. Houses of all shapes and sizes with equally different and diverse families in them. It’s all so different to what I’m used to, to what I know. It’s overwhelming my senses having to learn a new area, meet new people, start life all over again. It’s all I can do to just get out of bed. I’m finding it difficult to cope, don’t know what to do or who to turn to. I pull the duvet over my head and take comfort in the dark. I’m happy now.

moving away

Posted: November 6, 2019 in flash fiction, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, overwhelming, Personal life story, reflecting, Short Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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We’re moving. Moving away from everything I know, everything I understand. Mum and dad have a new job the other side of Bradford. It’s a long way from where I live now. Will I see any of my friends ever again? I’m overwhelmed with emotion’s, but I can’t express them. I stand there worried, scared, confused. I don’t fully understand what is happening or why. The future is scary especially when it’s so uncertain.

struggling in the top tier

Posted: November 2, 2019 in childhood, education, flash fiction, life, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, mental health, overwhelm, Reality, reflecting, reflections, Short Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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The middle tier at school was easy. The tests for the top tier were easy. Life in the top tier is so different. Everything seems harder to learn, more intense. I’m struggling to take it all in, to understand what is happening, what is expected of me. Maths is especially difficult. Algebra make no sense at all. I’m lost in a sea of knowledge and learning. I don’t know who to turn to or where to go. I don’t want to be at school anymore. I wish I hadn’t passed the tests.

mum wakes me up

Posted: November 1, 2019 in poetry, Uncategorized
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you loved the light entering my bedroom
every morning turning on my light
falling down from the middle of the ceiling
blinding me momentarily
confusing me before i rub the
sleep out of my eyes to see you
silhouetted against the morning sun
holding a curtain in each hand
a saint on a cross
opening the gates to heaven
stepping aside to let
the rays of life touch her son
breath new life into him
and start a new day

life before…

Posted: October 24, 2019 in poetry, Uncategorized
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what was life like
before the headaches
back in the stillness
of a hot July day
i remember thinking was
clearer, sharper, faster,
more focused, more…real
now things are…
cloudy, slow, blurry,
confusing sometimes
less important, less meaningful,
sapping all the energy i have
getting the washing up done
is an achievement someday’s
whereas before the headaches
it was five forgotten minutes
just like that hot day
in July is now…

struggling in the top grade at school

Posted: October 11, 2019 in flash fiction, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, mental health, overwhelming, Personal life story, Reality, reflecting, Short Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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Getting to the top grade at school was a big achievement for me. Maths and English tests and I was selected above everybody else, just one person, me. However I soon began to struggle and was overwhelmed by the harder lessons and tougher expectations of me academically. In the grade below I was near the top of the classes and was effectively cruising at school. I coped with the lessons and homework and had plenty of time to play with my friends. School was not a worry for me. Moving to the top grade was a very different matter for me. There was more homework, tougher questions, algebra was a new concept for me, how could you do maths with letters? I’m still confused by algebra but I can add up, subtract, divide and multiply, what more do you need for life! Moving home didn’t help either. Everything happened at once, moving home, moving up a grade at school and looking back I couldn’t cope. It was all too much for me I was overwhelmed and collapsed under the weight of everything that was going on and retreated into my shell, unable to talk to anyone about how I felt because I didn’t understand what was going on and I couldn’t even begin to put into words how I felt. I felt lost in the world and took to my bed as the only place I felt comfortable and safe in the world. Maybe if I hadn’t moved away from everything I knew I would have been fine in the top grade. Maybe if I hadn’t moved up to the top grade I would have coped better with the move. Life is full of if’s and but’s and so many unanswered questions and we all have them and all we can do is think about what might have been and move on as best we can.

teaching in the 70s and 80s

Posted: October 8, 2019 in flash fiction, life, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, Personal life story, reflecting, Short Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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Teaching in the 70s and 80s at state run schools in the North of England was a vastly different experience to the ones I read and hear about today. Teachers were in charge and they let you know it. We called them sir or miss, no names to ensure there was an invisible barrier between us that we could not cross. Yes the teachers were in charge and they let us know it. I remember one teacher who would trip you up if you ran down the corridor and simply say ‘don’t run boy’ as you lifted your face off the floor. Another teacher would hit you over the head with a piece of wood covered by a newspaper and when you asked him why he did it he replied ‘because I can’. One incident I remember is being in maths and the lad behind me was talking so the teacher threw the board rubber at him which bounced off the desk and smashed the window. The teacher just pointed at him and said ‘that’s your fault boy’! and it wasn’t worth going home and complaining to your parents because you just got a clip round the ear and told to behave yourself if you did. There were plenty of other experiences that I have forgotten now and a lot of the teachers were very nice and didn’t do anything they shouldn’t but it was a very different time and I’m glad I experienced it.

doing well academically during the first year

Posted: October 6, 2019 in flash fiction, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, Observations, Personal life story, reflecting, Short Stories, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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It’s my first year at Tong and I’m doing well academically. I’m getting top grades in all my subjects and soon will be progressing to the top tier. I’m still living on Holmewood at this point and walking to Marks everyday to call for him and go to school with him. I’m enjoying life, enjoying school. Everything seems so easy, so much fun. Little do I know how life is going to take a turn that will forever alter my life and turn it upside down. Life won’t be as easy after this event. This is when life gets hard for me.

planting colour

Posted: October 5, 2019 in poetry, Uncategorized
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my mother and father
would plant vegetables and flowers
digging through different
shades of mud and clay
dull blubs produced
colourful vetetables
tiny seeds
flowers of beauty
my mother and father
planted all the colours
of the earth
reproduced them
in all their splendour
how i wish
i could go back
learn from them
reproduce nature
as they once did

big school at last

Posted: October 3, 2019 in childhood, Dreams, flash fiction, Life journey, Memories and reflections the collection, Personal life story, Reality, reflecting, Short Stories, Short Story, Thoughts, Uncategorized
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It’s the day when dreams come true. My first day at big school, Tong Comprehensive. I remember looking at Tong when I was at Holmefield First and dreaming of what it would be like to go there, be there, feel so grown up, feel like an adult. And now that day has come, I’m here. I stand in the playground surrounded by children and teachers. Everybody seems to know what they’re doing. Except me. I am in the eye of a storm. I don’t know what to do or where to go. I don’t feel grown up, I don’t feel like an adult. I feel adrift in space, floating like a piece of driftwood in the ocean. Is this what it’s like to grow up and be an adult? Lost and not knowing what you’re doing or where you’re going or what you want? If it is take me back to that moment when I looked over at Tong and dreamed of going there. I knew where I was that day, I knew where I was going, I knew what I wanted. Take me back to that moment when life was to be enjoyed and not now when life is a continuous series of never ending storms taking me everywhere but where I want to be.

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