WriteOn! 2024
Winning Essays 2014 10-University
TIRANA
10th Form Group
Onejda Ndreu
Invent a new day of the year to celebrate. What would it be, when would t be, and how would people celebrate it?
Special days, meaningful events and traditions are celebrated in one evening. Everybody enjoys them, each one of us long for their atmosphere and not only one of you forgets the memories they leave behind. And truly, why would you? Creating a wonderful, unforgettable memory out of each day is a challenge to each of us, it’s an occasion where we get to laugh on the table while eating dinner with our families, smile over the crazy things we do with our friends, cry if we are away from those we love and take and give presents filled with emotions and finally feel. Feel everything.
All these thoughts were piled up on my mind as I slowly crossed the thick, old bars of the orphanage’s door, the creaking sound filling my ears and the coldness of this place making chills go down my spine. I hear laughter, such sad laughs and I start to wonder… how can they laugh when they have nothing? This makes me stop on the doorway only to take a better look on their thin faces staring unconsciously I make a wish. A wish that we gave only one day on our lives to them, that for only 24 short hours we opened our heart and our mind to them.
The “Orphans Day”, doesn’t it sound beautiful? In my mind I have no doubt that they would love the sound of these words even though most of them wouldn’t even understand them. I can almost see it, feel it’s warm, I can imagine it, “that” day. It would be summer, maybe July or August, so everyone could enjoy the warmth and hotness of the sun. It would be nothing like the coldness they have experienced until now. The sky would be crystal clear and all these pale faces I am seeing now would take a beautiful chocolate color.
I can even smell it. All people gathering together in one place and bringing delicious food. Only their smell would fill their hungry stomachs. Candies, cookies, desserts, cakes, hot chocolate, fruit juice, everything a normal child loves and we would be there. Each and every one of us. Maybe feeding them or smiling kindly as they eat. This would be the most important part of the “Orphan’s Day”: we would all be there for them. Our love being poured in different shapes, forms and colors.
On the evening there would be fireworks and lights everywhere, even grown ups prefer these things. Songs would be sung and stories would be told until in the end they fell asleep in our arms. Here my imagination stops and I come back down to earth to the present. Here where these children in front of me don’t have the smiles I imagined on their faces and neither the warmth on their bodies but as cliché as it may sound… someday they will! Even though it will be only for one summer day at least for that one our only challenge will be to create a memory for them to remember. For now let “Orphan’s Day” remain a dream in a girl’s head but soon enough it will be the dreamed day each orphan will expect in enthusiasm once it is gone.
Yisi Musa
Topic: Invent a new day of the year to celebrate. What would it be, when would t be, and how would people celebrate it?
Tik-tok! Tik-tok! May I enter? You wanna know who I am? Let me introduce myself: I am 26th of June. You think I am a day or just an ordinary date? Splendid, you’re wrong! Probably, you’ve never heard of me, probably you’ve ignored me during your entire life. Don’t do it again! I am the most powerful day of the year. I have got not color, but I am multi-colorful. You cant touch me, but you can have me. I am everywhere! I appear every time if you call me, not only on the 26th of June. You wanna know my name?! Discover it! I’ll give you some clues.
Lets begin by a puzzle, splash your thoughts, smash your limits and figure it out! I am not the day, where the whole family comes together and celebrate, but I can make if happen. I am not the day where you get lots of presents, but I can make it happen. I am meant the day where you are obliged to clean the environment or when spontaneously the thought that animals are living beings come to your mind. I am more than that.
Millions of years ago I helped people invent the fire. I helped them to build their homes. I generated them to develop the place they used to live in. I helped people to invent machines, very helpful for the mankind, but not so much for the environment. I have helped many persons to escape from the jail. I was the main factor who helped Einstein to create the atomic bomb. I have helped Hitler to create his strategies. I have helped many kids get an award just because of me.
Probably you just don’t wanna know any further about what I do or you’ve discovered who I am. Are you interested in knowing how would people celebrate me?! They would all invent a balloon and fly all over the sky. They would visit every corner of the world, discover every thing beyond a flower, project a building or invent a machine. Everyone would think about something and if they have the right supplements, no problem. They should just try to travel with their mind or take a pen and paper. Just no sleep, please…only if you are dreaming.
My name is WillIm (Will of Imagination). I belong to 28th of June (that’s my birthday, not that there is any other reason), but as I said you can call me anytime. I am the root of the world and the ones who can perfectly own my components are the most advantaged human beings. You can do something good or bad with me. I am celebrated in 28th of June, I am still not official, that’s because I can be found everywhere. If you don’t want my death, get a shot and do the right move so people would really appreciate the great values of imagination.
Hygerta Qosja
Topic: Invent a new day of the year to celebrate. What would it be, when would t be, and how would people celebrate it?
People celebrate all the year. You see people celebrating new year, spring’s day, etc. but wouldn’t it be more awesome if people would have something else to celebrate too? Wouldn’t it be better if the world would celebrate something new, different from the other holidays? Well, yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. A new holiday to celebrate. And the world is going to call it: “The Mystery Day”. You see, it’s not like other holidays, it’s different. They Mystery Day, we’re going to call it like tat, because that day will be a day full of mysteries. Nowadays people still don’t know why they live, how the world has really created, how life came to Earth and a lot of other things. IN this day people re going to get out in the streets and with leaflets or pamphlets in their hands where they will write 1 or 2 or more questions that they want to know the answer to. Well they will not have the answers but still by doing that people will have more hope that one day they will find the answers they need. It will be celebrated with parties sure but with other things too. It will be a special day, with quizzes on the TV, big question marks will be sold, strange costumes showing the unknown and a lot of other things. The Mystery Day will be celebrated on September 1st. It will be chosen that day because it’s the first day of autumn, the first day of September. It’s not too cold or not too hot. It’s the perfect day for celebrating. For Mystery Day, people all over the world have to find information for other scientists, make competitions and if it’s possible donate money for creating some machines that will change the CO2 in Mars or other planet into O2. You see, if people have the chance to go and create life on other planets, that would be something amazing and it would be great knowing that the whole world is helping in creating something that seems unbelievable for human kind. It’s a holiday like every holiday we celebrate except that it’s going to be a big help for the world. There are theories that the world is going to be destroyed and we must do something for that. We can help our planet and also you never know what may happen so by donating some money you can have a hope, a chance to create another planet to live on. Yeah, that’s amazing. Let’s celebrate “The Mystery Day” guys. It will be fun.
11th Form Group
Aleksandra Selimej
Topic: You are one of the first settlers on Mars. You have lived there for one year. Write about your first year.
I am a victim. I was fooled. I have been deceived. This is my last pen so I might as well put it to good use. After 4 years of service in the arm, I was left with nothing, I became nothing. I stood pondering in bars for quite a while before I realized that me coming home safe was the universe’s way of letting me know that this was my second chance, the only one I would get. I was recruited by NASA due to being successful in their examinations. I had no relation to space what so ever. That left me wondering for a while but seeing as I was desperate and as long as I was considered a good soldier, I let it slide. One thing led to another and there I was, day 1, the start of a new era. Colonizing Mars would be human kind entering a new age. The first 100 days were vacations for me. Earth would send packages, we would receive. Life was good. There were 23 recruits when we arrived, all male, all between the ages of 20 – 25 and all ex soldiers. That left me wondering for a while, after all if you want to colonize you need all kinds of people to create a community. But what did I know about space anyway. After the 100th day, hell broke loose. It was real, it was there and it was full. Endless peaceful deserts started eating us up. I lost count of what I saw for a while. I remember pieces of me dying over and over. My dignity, my hope, my courage. I saw death embrace and kiss each and everyone around me with peculiar speed, like it was hungry for souls, like it wanted to absorb the one thing that kept us human, right in the center of our being. Every man I had respected and befriended lost the light in their eyes right in front of me. Mars had turned into our own personal corner of hell. Earth cut all communication with us on the 214th day. A year has passed and the fire of hope I had is fading away. I realized that I wasn’t sent here to live, they were curious whether I would survive. I remember Earth, I remember her silhouette drenched in golden moonlight and the mountains collapsed over fields and rivers. I remember the unmade bed on Sunday mornings when all we would do was slack during chores in our underwear. I remember the sun, the only sun, shining on my face and it’s warmth radiating behind my eyelids. I remember my little sister’s freckles on her nose and her eyes rolling when she was told to eat the soup. I remember the turtles in our garden and the laughs of people around me. I lived a lifetime of bliss and never realized it. I came here to die.
Subject 301 was found dead inside his sector of the base.
Cause of Death: Suicide
Time of Death: Unknown
Megi Hamza
Topic: You are one of the first settlers on Mars. You have lived there for one year. Write about your first year.
I feel two cold hands grasp me. I shrink at the unfamiliarity of the touch. I lift my eyes to meet another pair of them; dark human eyes looking at me with such intensity and worry that I start to worry myself. I signal my brain to give me flashback or memories, but nothing.
“Where am I?” – I hear myself speak.
“Special Agent Hamza, you’re safe, you’re home,” the man with dark eyes replies almost instantly. But it doesn’t feel like home.
I take a look around as they carry me out of the large spaceship I don’t remember being put in. Everything looks familiar, yet out of place. We have apparently landed in a big football field. My brain shrinks at the memories. Why does this place feel so distant? Flashbacks come and go like a cool breeze, yet still I can’t remember anything. They carry me to the nearest bench and offer me water. I reject it; or better yet, my body does. I throw it up as soon as I take a small sip.
“Get Agent Jones, now,” the dark eyed man speaks to his men and they do as he says.
“Where am I?” – I repeated, demanding answers.
“Special Agent Hamza, you are in Planet Earth.” – a spiky haired woman with an official marine suit replies. She must be Agent Jones.
“Where have I been all this time?” – my brain tickers and twists.
Agent Jones takes a deep breath and sits down next to me. “Planet Mars,” she whispers.
**FLASHBACK**
Apollo 201 is on a special “trip” to Mars to discover more about the new alien forms that have been appearing on the latter. I know that for a fact because I am on the crew; to be more exact, I am the crew. It is a one-man (or in my case, one-woman) mission, as it is extremely dangerous and life – threatening. I have devoted my life to this day, and it’s finally here. My memory doesn’t give me any details of the trip there, I don’t know why, but I find myself out of my spaceship and in the hot, heavy Mars air. Wait, what? I don’t need my oxygen casket? I can breathe perfectly fine, and that weirds me out. Now, I am expecting so two-headed, gross looking red aliens with their high-tech weapons to come and kill me; but to my surprise, out of my expectations, I hear laughter, I smell food. I see people. Yes, humans, just like me, with one perfect face and two arms and two legs and just a smile on their face as they salute me.
“Megi, we were expecting you.” – A tall guy says.
There are four other people with him.
“How do you know my name?”
“We have been expecting you. There are lots to tell.”
I follow them down a red rocked path for what seems like ten minutes. The most beautiful creative village covers my vision, we pass a huge cliff. The houses were built entirely of red stone (the only available material on Mars), there were parks and fountains and schools and courts. It was like a little red village out of a fairytale.
“How is all of this possible?” I ask.
“We figures out that the material these rocks are made of can support EVERY form of seed and grow it twice as fast as an organic field on Earth, it’s pretty much every farmer’s dream. And the rocks can take any form they are given and stick to one another miraculously. Which makes it a builders dream,” The tall guy replied.
My brain takes a minute all of this. “So why keep it a secret? Why hide it from the people back home?”
“Do you understand what would happen if people find out that Mars can be lived in? It would turn into a rampage, an ecological waste. The people who live here are only the astronauts and scientists who come to research. They find a better home here and better people.”
“Are you asking me to stay?”
**END OF FLASHBACK**
Agent Jones is looking at me with pleading eyes. “How long was I on Mars for?” – I ask.
“One full year and four days.” – she says.
And then I remember the whole thing. I did decide to stay. I created my family there, I worked as a teacher. Life was better in Mars, just like Steven (I remember the tall guy’s name; later he became my husband) told me. It was always warm and everyone was friendly. We ate healthy and protected the environment. That’s why I didn’t feel like home on Earth. My real home was now Mars. But why was I back?
“So, Agent Hamza, do you remember anything? What sort of species live there and how did you cope to co-live with them for a year?” Agent Jones asks.
“I don’t remember anything,” I proudly state.
I can’t forget about what Steven told me, how no one could find out. I saw Agent Jones wrinkle her nose and shrug in annoyance.
“You were so close, Agent Hamza.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“You were never on Mars.” – she replied.
My heart breaks at every word she says. “What!?” I shockingly ask.
“You were inside a spaceship for one year, your brain attached to a computer device. All the people you saw, the things you experience, they weren’t real.”
“You’re lying.” I start to shake.
“It was all a test. You are not an Agent. This was your test to become one.” “I don’t understand.”
“You betrayed your country and your planet by not telling us what you saw. You became attached to the target. I’m sorry but you are out of the team.”
“But I got married, I had a job, I lived there.”
“It wasn’t real. None of it was.”
My brain shatters and my hear scatters. There is one more logical thing I want to do. “Put me into the machine again. I can’t live here anymore.”
Agent Jones shakes her heard. “You are too vulnerable,” she says. “I’ll ask”.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to me now, or even if I went to Mars or not, but the truth is, I was happy, really happy, and that’s the truth for me.
Alba Tahiri
Topic: You are one of the first settlers on Mars. You have lived there for one year. Write about your first year.
I remember the day we went to the space craft and the commander said that everything was settled for the first journey to Mars. I shivered. It had been my dream since I was a little child to go beyond this world, to see other dimensions. They wanted volunteers. It seemed like ti was a risky adventure, more like an experiment. It required strong survival skills and knowledge in astrophysics. I felt I would be one of those persons, I had imagined myself a thousand times living in a different planet. But it also required people that would be able to give up their homes and families. I knew it would be very painful but I had to choose my dream so I raised my hand and I took a two month training regarding additional knowledge. The day our space ship was going to take off, I had a strange feeling. I even remember vomiting once or twice. Everything was going as planned, the astronaut and the volunteers were very excited. I cannot describe the moment of taking off. It was thrilling, I was shaking and suddenly my ears went blank. It was beautiful though. I hadn’t experienced such a feeling even when I scored for the first time. We were 258 km distance from Mars and we were wandering the cosmos somehow lost. The universe was too big for us to handle. At night I always looked from my window and I was scared. I felt so small, a small insignificant part of this mega huge world. Until then, I had no idea that my phobia were big dimensions. Stars from the windows representing each a different world, were so many, an infinite many. The strange feeling didn’t vanish, on the contrary, the closer we were to Mars the more bad and insecure I felt.
After a month, we finally arrived. The first thing that caught my eye was it’s color. It was not quire red, it was more the color of dirt and dust. There were rocks and no sky at all. One thing for sure, I didn’t feel at home. What was I doing there? In that instant, I felt something hit my chest. I was choking. I looked back and I saw the 5 other volunteers dead. Then my mind collapsed. What was happening? Where was the astronaut?
Before I started feeling more hopeless, a strange being approached me and damn, I was scared. I couldn’t even more a muscle. The next moment I found myself on a big, blue, room similar to hospital rooms. An alien was standing at the corner, trembling. Or was it a hologram? I couldn’t see clearly nor move. My arms and legs were tired and a blue medicine was entering my veins through a syringe. So the days passed and I lost who I was. The only thing I knew was that an attempt for a better life. I was caught by alien intelligence. I hoped I could find the means to talk to them but for them I was like a gorilla, too primitive, too insignificant. The percent between our intelligences could be only 2 or 3 but that meant quite a lot. I had lost sense of time, sense of my age. I felt like my intelligence was no longer available so I started making additions, multiplication with numbers to keep my brain fresh. For a long time I stayed closed in the blue room surrounded by strange equipments. I was going crazy. Then, suddenly, one day or one night, I cannot tell, I heard a scream, a human scream. It woke me up, I felt alive somehow, there was still blood in my veins for god’s sake. I saw on the camera one of the astronauts, they were still alive. It gave me hope. After a while, I started manipulating the aliens. I removed the medicine and replaced it with the spit of my mouth. I was becoming more and more clear. I wanted so badly to get out of there, I felt so trapped. My family’s memory kept me alive, kept going.
Then one day, I found myself on a spaceship that was headed to Earth. I couldn’t understand anything. After a week I landed on my planet with a different look in my eyes, with new phobias and with an unbelievable story to tell.
Today, after a year, I still cannot figure out what exactly happened or why they realized me. How come I am still alive? But one thing is for sure, I am very grateful to them. My son is about to be born and I’m moving to California and my whole life is getting somehow normal. However, in my dreams, I still see those faces. I still sense their presence, I feel they are a part of me now.
Reported Jack Doolittle for the newspaper, “The Guardian”
12th Form Group
Rea Bakiasi
Topic: Write a letter to yourself to be read in 15 years.
Dear Rea,
How are you? What’s going on in your life? I’m really curious to learn about it. It’s strange, but my name is Rea too. Actually you don’t know me, I am seventeen years old and you are 32 years old. However, I have this feeling that deep down we are pretty much the same. Let me write you something about myself.
I was born in a small city in Albania, the type of city where everyone knows everyone even though I came to Tirane when I was only 4 years old, I still can remember the warm feeling and the cozy roads of my city. When I got back there after 10 years, I don’t know why but for the first time I felt home like I belonged to it.
So this is me at this moment, a girl who started everything fresh in a big city with big challenges. At first nothing was easy and in fact, it has been awful for my parents. They have given everything including their best years to create a safe future for me and my sister. Well, I’ve tried to do my best too. Each year I’ve gotten top marks, I’m also known as the one girl in the class who studies a lot but who doesn’t enjoy life.
This opinion hurts me not because it is said by my classmates during different school years but because I actually agree with it. When I look back in time, I don’t remember doing anything crazy or breaking rules or going to a party and just enjoying myself. The worst feeling ever is regretting your life. I hope you are living each second in your life Rea because as Sandra Bullock has written, “Life is not a book, it can be over in a second.” This year is my senior year and I’ve understood that I should. I should change myself, I should change my life.
It’s difficult for me to be so sincere with somebody I barely know because usually I don’t express my feelings to others. You may think I’m a terrible person but I have never told to the people I love the most that I actually love them. I keep everything to myself: the good and the hard feelings. I am afraid that one day this is going to break me apart. There are days when I just want to be on the top of a mountain and just scream. I hope it can make me forget, forgive, feel free… I just hope that since I am coming clean it’s time to mention that I have always had low self esteem. I have never felt proud or happy with my achievements. It’s a burning desire inside of me to do more, to try more because when I get to bed, in the end of the day I think “ you are not good enough”. It will come a day when I get rid of these obstacles inside of me and when that day comes, I will probably be the happiest person alive.
From everything I wrote you may think that I am just a teenager with lots of problems. My sister jokes about my life and she suggests I go to a psychologist. I’m not that bad, don’t be afraid! I think t hat everything I am experiencing is just part of the human nature, we all have to face the same doubts and have the same demons inside. It is just a matter of revealing or hiding them deep in the south.
I have a great sense of helping people, I am part of the social group of the school, we just visit old people, sick children and homeless families. We do this every time and every time my heart breaks a little. I meditate a lot, I get frustrated, revolted with the world we’re living in. It’s so unfair! My neighbor is a millionaire but when I get out, a homeless child is starving. That is why I have decided to study in biomedical sciences. In the field of research, I believe we can find out the cure for many illnesses and somehow have an impact in making out lives better. I believe we are all on Earth for a reason: to help one another. I’m quoting a phrase I read in a book: “Since I was young, I learned that life damages us, each of us. But we can be mended, we mend each other.”
All in all, this is me with all my qualities, fears, doubts and dreams. You are older than me, so I hope you have become an intelligent, beautiful, free spirited young lady. I wish you to find peace with your inner demons, most of all I hope you adore and appreciate yourself because believe it or not you have been through every single problem by yourself, there is nobody better or smarter than you are. I am learning now but remember: “seize the day, one day we’ll turn cold and die!”
Best Regards, Rea
Xhulia Mema
Topic: Write a letter to yourself to be read in 15 years.
Dear Julia (or dear self),
This is not the first time I talk to you so directly. In fact, I’m sure I’m unable to count the times I’ve had to scold you or direct you towards what I thought was the truth or the right thing to do or even praise you for your modest accomplishments. It doesn’t matter how many people we encounter in life, how many people we find around or when we learn how to be conscious of our environment, like family, how material things we hold on to later in life… essentially all we have is our own self. It may sound deterministic, pessimistic or selfish but if we could be just for one single moment, aware of the number of things we don’t own, we would be appalled. We would really understand how important it is to relate to the inner person whom we love inside us. I’m in the process of understanding it. All my life until now and all the years that will follow, I will be in search for understanding. Understanding yourself, I have learned how to discover you. After that I learned to know you, your feelings, desires, fears. I learned how to appreciate you for what you did right and understand your limits. Still, being unable to get to the bottom of you (not yet at least) all I wanted to say at this very moment in this critical period of my life which could decide what my entire future will be like. I wanted to remind you of certain things I’ve learned, which I never want you to forget, not in a hundred years!
First of all, never forget to be yourself and to love yourself. Don’t forget you were born to be unique and not copy the standards other people or an entire society have put on you or other individuals. Don’t forget you’ve got your standards. They may evolve, but at the core they make you who you are. By the time you read this letter you will have changed and changed, again and again, but at the core it’s still you. I’ve found out just now how important it is to have self confidence. It’s not about being arrogant, it is being objectively aware of the qualities you own. Even if the whole world seems to be crumbling, you should be able to stand up for yourself. Strength comes from within. More over don’t forget to keep looking forward.
I’ve gotten caught up many times in the net of past experiences, which have made me feel depressed, and have made me unable to achieve my personal goals. The moment I learned how to embrace my path, along with its failures, I began to look forward. I imagine you will be up for more complicated situations. However, this advice is always valid. Don’t think about the mistakes you did when you were me. Instead, learn from them, the way you will.
Also, it is important for you to remember YOU have to do your best. I know you will remember the precious time I’ve spent being lazy or inactive. I certainly was not doing my best at that time, and this is the reason why. You should always use your full potential. Sometimes, it won’t be enough. In fact, it might not be enough, many times. The importance of it is that, at the end of the day, you will look back and feel accomplished, nevertheless. You will think to yourself at least I tried and you will feel great peace within you.
Finally, never forget your hunger for knowledge, which is the most important aspect of your character, and it will guide you toward your purpose. Remember not to lose your curiosity about the world. The excitement, of finding out how it works and the feeling of accomplishment when learning more each single day. Don’t ever lose the spark which makes you human.
Don’t become a part of the illusion that tells you that all you must do is “be born”, “study for school”, “get a job”, “work and die”. You, or we, are more than that. Don’t forget to find the courage to never be a part of it. Don’t forget that the meaning of life for you, personally, is learning. You are ever learning, evolving. When we finally become one, a lot of time will have passed. Time, the world, can change you, sometimes at your expense. I hope this letter will help you to get up again, dream again, open up to the world more, until there is no more of you. A lot of people will be there for you. It is not either black or white. But remember to live even though others don’t want to see you that way.
Always, live.
Love your young developing self, Julia
Klaudia Bufazi
Topic: Write a letter to yourself to be read in 15 years.
Dear You Granny Girl,
How are you?! Hmm… it’s funny you know, talking to you after so long. I mean you’re an adult, you already have a family, your own family, that one that you dreamed so damn much about. I have so many questions for you, even most of them I know the answer, so the first thing I have always wanted to ask is “are you a completed woman?!”. I hope you are because it’s me. Oh, me. I’m not and do you know why?! I’m that empty glass that is waiting to be full but no lights in the horizon. Remember that girl, me now, who always wanted to be a successful woman, different on everything, looking happy but really deep inside she was so scared of being alone, or remember that girl looks like a boy because you looked in that way in everything you did, you had no dresses until 13, and your crazy speak/expressions. I should accept that you’d better be born a boy just to live in. Where are you now?! Are you already so different from that one or you just had the mask again, like a strong person. I’m sure of something, you’ll never change the way you smile, that stupid tears you always hated when you made that big laugh. Maybe you’re a big girl with other visions but let me tell you something; whatever you do, wherever you be, do not stop being proud of who you are, cause you have big mistakes on you, really big ones, but if they wouldn’t exist you’d never be where you are now. Kill everything that makes you sad in your mind, cry, scream, shout, fight but never… stop loving yourself and believe in everything you do, believe in yourself. There’s no limit you can’t achieve, I know that, I hope you do. Maybe I’m fake in this hell reality but I’m original about my feelings as you are now. Always remember where you came from, have a really nice company with your loved ones. Break a leg,
Sincerely yourself,
Xoxo
University Year 1-2
Enxhi Pica
If music had flavor, what would different types of music taste like?
I love music and guess what! I love eating too! The truth is that my mom is a music teacher, so “I’ve been raised with music.” There are a lot of reasons why people listen to music and a lot of other reasons why other people like some food in particular!
So, back to the topic…if music had a flavor, huh?! There are so many types of music that I can’t even remember but let me start with pop music. Pop music is beautiful (actually music is beautiful itself) so it would be tasty. Thinking of pop music, I got reminded of pop corn. Yeah! Pop music would taste like popcorn. Ever seen the moment when popcorn are cooked! When they “jump”? It’s like when people hear pop music, they try to stay calm but in the end they “jump” and must keep moving to not get burned. (Still relating this to popcorn.) If we talk about the rhythm, this is it, pop music is like popcorn; but according to lyrics that I am doubting. They are salty but even sweet pop corn, just like when we like the lyrics or just like when we don’t. It’s a matter of taste now! Considering the fact that some people like sweets than salty foods, it’s up to you if you want to compare pop music with sweet popcorn, with some strawberries or caramel or with salty popcorn!
What to say about blues! It’s so beautiful too! Blues would taste like ice cream ! You know… when you eat ice cream your tongue freezes just like when the blues leave you speechless. You can enjoy it ‘cause no matter the flavor of the ice cream, ice cream is sweet! Just like the way ice cream is cold/iced when you eat it and then melts inside your mouth; the same happens with blues, it comes slowly cold in the beginning, but if you really listen to that music, then it becomes like a part of you. You feel it and the feeling is awesome! Blues is soft and no matter what, how cold it might look, it is very sweet and melts with your soul.
Rock music! When I think rock music the only thing that comes to mind is HOT! I think rock music is like you’re eating a big red chili Mexican pepper! It burns… and it burns a lot! It’s that moment when you turn as red as Mexican peppers, burn like hell, that moment when you move and suffer at the same time laugh and cry as you like it a lot damn it!
Classic music is royal! Listening to Beethovan or Mozart, I don’t know it’s crazy soft and beautiful and… you know what? There are some songs that just lead you to fall asleep and there are some symphonies that terrifies you and while they open your eyes! So it’s difficult to choose the taste but I would say it tastes like red wine and leave all the feelings it gives you as the behavior you have when you’re drunk. Sorry classic music, but at least wine is classic too!
The best of music is that it makes you shake it all but rock and roll is the one that completes this mission perfectly! It is just like a shaked soda, when you open the can! It just gets out spreading everywhere, all the bubbles, the gas and everything. It’s like it is alive! So I would consider rock and roll as an energy drink Red Bull, we fly dancing rock and roll!
Then there are some “modern” styles! New music like for example electro music that I would compare with the taste of fried potatoes. People of a young age loves them both.
If ever you heard of “Tallava”! Then you’d understand why it would taste like pudding! Pudding is sweet and it moves fast when you touch it, just like the tallava is danced, shaking a lot when you hear it!
And the lovely, beautiful Albanian folk music would taste like baklava, a traditional sweet! It has a lot of sugar, a lot of butter, a lot of nuts… it has a lot of “eat it and you’ll get fat” things! It’s amazing, it’s just like you’ll never get tired or bored!
House music would taste like turkey! We eat it for Thanksgiving day… it’s always played out at every single party!
…I’m feeling hungry I swear! I was thinking of music as a kitchen right now and music types were all the things that chiefs (composers, song writers and all artists) had prepared and it’s amazing! I felt so rich! I wish I could had eaten all of the meals and everything that was there, tasty and yummy, all be myself, but I can’t. Just like music is spread, I have to share everything with everyone…and I like it! I am proud, it seems like music types taste much better than the real food!
………Back to reality. Music tastes good. But only to my ears! If music had a flavor and every different type of music had a special taste, by now I would have been the fattest girl in the world as I would never have stopped eating to enjoy and try every single taste!
Silvi Koçiu
If music had flavor, what would different types of music taste like?
Those who love and enjoy the sweet pleasure of wine tasting know or maybe are aware of the fact but haven’t yet realized that wine is feminine, there is no way wine cannot be a woman. You can associate a fine glass of red wine with the chewy eyes of Monica Belluci and bottles of wine with the long elegant legs of Charlize Theron. Music is no exception. Music is a woman too, just like the wine. She brings joy, yet she asks deep questions. If one ever turned into palpable material, it would be nothing else but dessert.
One thing about pop music is that it reminds me of cupcakes; playful and easy. You can have them anywhere; they don’t require a certain mood. However, a real foodie never falls for them. Someone who has developed a certain taste, somehow expects more. More sugar, less fantastic colors. A real foodie would always fall for jazz. Jazz is America’s greatest gift to the world; crème de la crème. Jazz is the dark chocolate. Not everyone can handle such a sinister flavor, but that’s what jazz is about; it is not made for everyone only a few can understand and enjoy its bittersweet venom and beauty in melancholia.
If we dare to take a ride in the time carousel and meet every face of the classical music, one would have to get used to the idea that classical music has no flavor. Franz Schubert has no flavor. Tchikowsky has no flavor. Why? Since when do the greatest musicians of all time, geniuses like Mozart, evoke no flavor at all? The answer is simple, they don’t have to. One is already fulfilled when he listens to Franz Lizt. You can feel his pain and his grief in every turn and imagine him mourning over his deformed piano hand. How can an artist of such mastery whose hand has evolved into a bizarre body part because of playing the piano so often need to evoke a flavor? Lizt’s nocturnes smell like the purple irises in the Van Gogh painting. I don’t dare say more. Lizt is Lizt. Chopin is Chopin; they have already indentified themselves. I would offend them if I associated any of their master pieces to anything less heavenly.
Comparing or failing to find a comparison for certain types of music would go on forever. I could say Justin Bieber’s music reminds me of maple syrup; I don’t like maple syrup but that would not be crucial to the main point. No matter what, it is boring and most of all painful to abandon the divine heights of this art. Music is an expedition towards the truth; it helps us learn more about the world, about the complex human nature. Music co exists in a parallel universe; stubbornly and proudly just like a woman. We could corrupt the course of its ship, but we need the eggs of its timeless truths.