The first thing that came to my mind as I saw this prompt was this 10inch treasure of mine. We met at the darkest of places and have ever since then been tight pals.
When I was seven, I was going through some of my dad's things while his room was being cleared out and there were just lots of papers and awards, nothing intriguing. At the verge of me giving up, I felt something, the round wood.
It was definitely love at first sight because no normal kid would want to keep a stick so bad. I liked it because to me, the round wood looked strange. First,it was round and second, it was black! My favourite colour as at then.
I paid a little more attention to details and I saw some remnants of glue indicating that this was a part of a whole. I searched for the 'whole', but didn't find it and so I let it go.
I took the wood to a sink to wash off the dust that covered it and when I was done, the black was shining even brighter.
You must be thinking what I used the wood for?
I used the wood for almost everything. I used it as a baton while playing, I used it to drum to beats, I used it to practice some fighting skills,but above all, I used it to sing.
My love for music started very early. I always admired artists who performed on stage with a mic and guess what, I found myself a mic too.
The round wood posed as a mic for me whenever I wanted to perform(which was very often). It was always me, the mic and the mirror. I would look in the mirror and sing my guts out, trying to emulate "Celine Dion's" or "Shakira's" voice. It was crazy😅
Time passed and I grew more attached to the wood. I especially liked the way it felt in my hand. I had smaller palms then and so it would just fit perfectly into my hands.
Eventually, I grew to start singing without using the mic but still, I won't let anyone take it away from me, no one. I keep it safely in a corner in my room. This black round wood has a special place in my heart.
Everyone sees it as a regular wood that I carried with me from childhood, but it's more than that. I value it so much because it helped me a lot with my overall public performance as a kid.
Whenever I had a presentation on stage, I'd carry the wood, look into the mirror and start practising. This way, I always aced my presentations. Having the round wood around has been great and I'm still having the thoughts of gifting it to any of my kids that would have a flare for music, in the future.
This is my entry into the weekend engagement initiative week-141 by @galenkp. You can find more details here.
With love, wongi ✨
all the pictures above our mine