Muy buenos!
This is Sofia Herrera, guest blogging for author S. C. Ashby.
I have been feeling reflective this week of winter break. I’ve been thinking a lot about my life journey (As short as it has been so far since I am just in high school!). I think this was because I have been spending a lot of time considering which colleges to apply to for journalism. I decided to pour this reflection into a photo essay.
Over the last few days this week, I recorded the various thoughts and emotions that came to me. I selected some photos I snapped while on vacation or around town (Doddville, which is the setting of the novel Along the River Road by S. C. Ashby.) that mirrored my thoughts and feelings. Then, I matched the photos to the recorded observations and spent some time revising the writing for the best fit.
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I hear many wise sayings from my grandparents (most often in Spanish as that is our home language). I have heard the standard wise sayings like “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Or as my Grandparents have said to me in Spanish: A caballo regalado, no le mires el diente. The English literal translation: A gift horse, don’t look at the tooth.
Another standard saying is one that in Spanish makes me laugh out loud: “The leopard doesn’t change its spots,” or “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Or as my Grandparents have told me: La cabra siempre tira al monte. The English literal translation: The goat always heads toward the mountain.
I know, that’s funny.
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The one saying that both sets of my Grandparents and each of my parents have imparted to me is “El que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho.” The English literal translation: He who walks a lot and reads a lot, sees a lot and knows a lot. I looked it up and found out that it was originally written by Miguel de Cervantes. So I cannot give my family credit for creating it, only for saying it.
I have taken this saying to heart because I believe it is encouraging me to travel and observe the world and all its different cultures. The saying also urges me to seek out knowledge and to be a lifelong learner.
So, with this saying in mind, here is my photo essay entitled Passages.
¡Diviértete!
Sofia
Photo Essay: Passages
Literary Passage: My mother reads aloud from a book of children’s stories. Her voice embodies the characters as they speak from the pages. Her tone inflects the emotional emphasis and we are moved.
Musical Passage: My father plucks the strings of his grandfather’s guitar giving voice to a folklorico melody that reverberates through the instrument’s body and soothes our souls in the evening.
Bridge over the Mississippi River
Our car tires rolling across the pavement on the bridge rhythmically click like a train on a track. We pass over the Mississippi River driving from Missouri into Illinois on our summer Chicago journey. Our passage here is at once both an exit and an entrance.
City of Dublin, Ireland
As we travel within the city of Dublin, Ireland, our physical passages are many: a road, a sidewalk, a channel, a bridge.
Bridge across the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland
Into, around, through, and out of the city of Dublin, Ireland: a continuous flow—a fluid movement—across the River Liffey (“River of Life”).
Dingle Harbor, Ireland
By land or by waterway, passages provide the action or process of moving from one place to another; from one condition to another.
Falls in Yellowstone
Passages are essential in nature for transitions from one level to another—one stage to another—one season to the next.
Old Castle in Ireland
Passages are essential to our human habitats providing us egress from inside to outside and outside to inside.
Basement Passage in Old Castle
Passages may be narrow, may be secret, may be hidden and might even be forbidden.
Spiral Staircase
Inside passages assist us in moving along a continuum in our grief. Or, they may assist us to rise above.
