A few months ago I was staring at a blank page, trying to come up with a story, when I remembered a writing exercise I started in a workshop once: think of a place you’d go to to escape and write about it. So that’s what I did. And the result was the piece of work published just last week by Bricolage Magazine, ‘Everyone Wears Flip-Flops’. In my imagination (and story) I go back in time and space to my favorite place in the entire world.
When I discovered Bricolage Magazine, I knew it was the perfect place to share my story. Bricolage is an independent arts and culture magazine that acts as a platform for artists, storytellers, writers, poets and photographers to share their work with the world. It is a magazine that isn’t afraid of new ideas and open-mindedness, and believes that every story is a unique and valuable perspective. I’m so grateful to them for publishing my writing, and I hope you’ll escape for a moment to read…
Everyone Wears Flip-Flops
The blue double-decker #9 bus putters into the rusty station and rattles to a stop. I wobble off. My shoes feel weird on my feet as soon as they hit the pavement. As I look at everyone shuffling around me, I hear Dad’s voice in my head: “It’s a flip-flop life.”
I pull my boots off and stuff them into the bottom of my backpack, preferring to feel the ground scratch my bare soles. I have returned to my childhood – to Secret Village, the place where I was my happiest self.
I take the main road and pass the local Thai place where we spent many sweaty evenings dunking chicken sticks into sweet peanut sauce and flinging fat noodles across the table at each other. I wander down the alley where we ran like crazy and played ‘Grandma’s Footsteps’. We knew every street, stairwell, roof, and tin shack as though a map were imprinted on our retinas. The whole village was our playground…
[Photo credit: all photos are mine unless otherwise stated]
