As a journalism student, this task of creating a personal memoir was extremely daunting. I felt as though my brain has been trained to only relay hard facts and that I wouldn’t be able to find a subject to discuss in a more intimate and personable context. It turns out personal essays require the essential questions to be answered similar to journalism. Lopate says, “In this sense, the personal essayist must be like a journalist, who respects the obligation to get in the basic orienting facts— the who, what where, when, and why— as close to the top of every story as possible.”
For this personal memoir, I decided to explore my grandfather who was born in the Philippines and came to America to become a doctor. From a first-person perspective, I will be exploring this multi-faceted family member with whom I share many memories. He had so many layers and now after analyzing my memories with him, I have so many questions to ask. The story of my Papa Seb would appeal to readers because he was a complex character who faced significant loss at a young age, lived through poverty, caught food for his family as a child, and moved to the states to pursue medicine. He taught me so much through words and silence. He spoke a lot more before he started battling cancer, which was a long, drawn-out process he only continued to pursue because of his family. I look forward to exploring the depths of my memory and possibly solving a few missing pieces.
Christina's WSC 110 Blog 