When I was told the theme for the next Nocturnal issue was ‘heirloom’ I replied saying ‘omg that’s fab,
can’t wait to write something!!!!’. However, the reality was that I was thinking something along the lines of ‘shit, what does that mean? What can I write/create for this theme?’. I was completely stuck and put off writing this article for as long as I could.
I started to investigate what the word ‘heirloom’ really means through definitions and synonyms etc. But I still remained completely and utterly stuck. To make matters worse time was ticking on and the deadline for this piece was approaching.
I would try to write an article but nothing was working, I then tried to draw illustrations, work with film, work through photography but I just
ended up on the sofa, with a cup of tea, watching trash TV and feeling sorry for myself.
I started to panic, the deadline was only a week away and I had absolutely nothing. I got out my notebook and went online and I scribbled down the definition of ‘heirloom’:
‘a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations.’
As I was doing so my mum walked into the room and started chatting away about the hidden theme of some new crime fiction book she was reading. This lead to a rather long discussion about crime fiction in general, which lead to her talking about the adaptation of crime fiction books into film, which lead to a whole new discussion about the film industry and so on until I realized she had been talking for about an hour and I still had nothing down for nocturnal.
IN THIS HEIRLOOM: 'MY FAMILY AND I' SERIES OUR CREATIVES SHARE PERSONAL INSIGHTS INTO THEIR LIVES. ADOLESCENT YEARS AREN'T EASY AND THEY CAN BE MADE ALL THE MORE DIFFICULT WITH NO ONE TO TALK TO, YET MAYA REFLECTS ON HER MUM'S GIFT OF SPEECH DURING CHALLENGING TIMES
by MAYA WALLIS
MY FAMILY AND i:
MY HEAD HURTS