Blog Post #3- Priscilla Ortiz

Priscilla Ortiz
  Februrary 11th,2016
    Reading flash fictions is something new to me, I have never even heard of a genre that had that name or even exsist. First, when Reading flash fictions, I was confused on what the author was writing about and what he meant by it, because I was not able to interpret what was trying to be said while reading the stories.  However, some stories, seemed fairly easy to understand and write annotations about on the side.  Some flash fictions were harder to understand then others, For example, "Reasons for Elevators" and others, such as "Before she was a Memory" and maybe one last one.  However after reading it multiple times, and thinking long and hard about it, I was able to understand what the author was trying to say and portray after reading "Before she was a memory".  When reading this and taking some parts of it and analyzing I was finally able to understand half or more then half of the story, and the lesson behind it being written.  The lesson behind it being written that I took away from it, was that we as people and human beings have to value every moment we have with people who are very special to us.  Value every moment, even if its a little time you spend with that certain person.  You have no idea, what can happen in a matter of seconds, or in the blink of an eye. Everything can change and it can happen when you least expect it.  This story of "Before she was a memory" I saw it as how, we all lose people we care about, and they leave us and that occurs when we least expect it to occurs when we had no idea that person was going to leave, and nonetheless Yes we know people leave us one day, but we never expect to happen on a day we are not there or out of nowhere.  I say this I know its true,  and I myself have experienced moments where I lost people close to me that I never expected to loose so quick and fast. Yes, we all have lost family members and even friends wether its recent or years ago, when we lose people we care about it changes us, it changes our day to day, how we do things, Everything in General!  If its a family member we lose like in the story " Before she was a memory", what you feel and the impact it leaves on you is not the same when you lose a friend by any means possible, where now that person is not with you anymore as you thought he would be.  The pain you feel when you loose someone, is many time or the majority of the time unexplainable and you cant explain it, so many things and questions start to go through your head, anything that you can think of you of you want to question.. You ask yourself, When? why? was this even supposed to happen? you know it was supposed to happen one day, that everyone is supposed to leave, but you don't even imagine and it doesn't even cross your mind for a single second, that any person can leave, It couldn't even be the last time you see that person, you talk to them.  Just like the mother of the Girl in the story,"Before She Was A Memory", It doesn't cross her mind, that she was lose her daughter in a matter of minutes maybe even seconds, because she just finished seeing her not that long ago, and now she lost her daughter. Thats what happens to most of us, we don't imagine losing someone, when maybe we just saw that person not that long ago, and once you lose them many questions start being placed in your head and many of them constantly is going to be "I can't believe, this is happening", "Is this even real, its maybe a dream, "Why?!..." As stated before, everyone at a point in their life, loses people they were close to Family, friends, Everyone Myself included.  I never imagined I would lose family members, like my grandfather who I was really close to and until this day, regardless of the years that have passed I still remember him and I still miss him and I wish he was here. Everyone, feels like that when they lose someone, they think it cant be real, until they actually see reality and they see that person is not there anymore as they used to be.  Even with friends,  wether they were close friends, or friends in general if you lose them it hurts, it hurts Dearly, and its unexpected. You may now, have something that used to be theirs, and the family members of that person gave it to you so you can keep it.  You have something, aside from the memories that you have with that family member or  friend, that you will have with you regardless of the time that passes by.  I myself, lost a friend as well and family members to and yes its not easy to only now have memories with both friends or family that you thought wouldn't leave this planet so quick, and without even expecting it.  Just like, the mom with her ring that she gave her daughter, she wanted the daughter to have the ring, as something special, or for many reasons, we all have something that was a part of someone else.  With that along with the memories and many other things, we will always remember them, regardless of the days, weeks, months or even years that pass by, because not even that will stop us from remembering that person we lost. As the story mentioned  "perhaps I’d recognized her not by how she looked but how she looked at me, that perhaps that’s how anyone knows anything, not by the looking but by the looking back." Looking back at the memories you had with that person is something that, we can remember them by.