There’s
not much to be said about me. I was born twenty years ago in a forgotten
country of the southern hemisphere, where democracy was blossoming again after
several years of shameful wildness.
I
spent my childhood in a state of total innocence, although I used to be
concerned about things I couldn’t discuss with people of my age. I learnt to
read and write when I was four years old and that opened a whole new world I
explored merrily. My imagination used to be (it still is, I guess) a great
source of entertainment and joy, and I still treasure the very first story I
wrote, when I was five, which was about some animals that wanted to build a
submarine to go across a river full of piranhas -cute, huh? That passion for reading and writing was what inspired
me to study
Literature
at University, and that’s what I’m doing now.
Since
I was a little girl I’ve been interested in the environment and I daydreamed
about becoming an ecologist when I grew up. Well, people often
think that kind of things tend to wear off as years go by, but that
hasn’t happened to me yet (and I hope it never will). Although I can’t
really be considered an activist I try to do something for the memory of that
dreamy little girl inside me. I became a vegetarian some years ago and I’m
sure that’s a great step. Renouncing to an unhealthy diet for the sake of
nature is a goal we all should achieve.
*Music* has always been a very special thing in my life, too. Maybe the most important one. I grew up in a musical home, as my Dad has a passion for it as well. We don’t really coincide in our likes, but he’s been a great help on my way of discovering the sounds I would insanely enjoy. He also encouraged me to play Guitar and several other instruments. Although I wasn’t really enthusiastic about it when I started playing, I became an absolute fan of it when I came across Rock ’n Roll. It all started about five years ago when I opened my eyes and ears to THE BEATLES, the famous band I had always liked because my Mum played them for me since I was born. I suddenly went nuts about them and loved everything about them with insane insistence lol. It soon developed in an irrational interest in the music, lifestyles and ideologies of the 1960’s... And the 50’s and 70’s. NOT the 80’s! I think the decadence of the western culture started around that time lol. Not a good time for being born… Anyway, we are surviving, and luckily the 90’s will be over soon (I quote a friend here hehe). Fortunately, the ashes the Sixties’ flame left are still enjoyable and they are still influencing people like me and you to do nice things artistically and humanistically. They have been a great help for me, because right before I discovered them I was a silly conventional teenager with nothing to offer (which I hope has changed hehe). I opened my mind to new possibilities and, I think, matured a lot. But, apart from all that, the most wonderful effects that music is able to cause in me are the ones that take place in my soul. Nothing in this world is compared to the vibrations that some melodies and harmonies can produce in me. Just when I'm starting to think that I’m as cold as steel, that I’m an insensitive rock, I hear the strings in a symphony and I cry my eyes out. And I realize that humanity carries a little divinity deep inside. How else would you explain genius?
What makes me so passionate about music and art I don’t know, but I think I found an important clue a couple of years ago, when I discovered that my brain does not work like most people’s, as I’m a synesthete. This means I “suffer” from Synesthesia, a “neurological condition in which a stimulus in one sense modality is involuntary elicited in another sense modality”. More specifically, I see sounds –as well as hear them, of course-, associate letters, numbers, periods of time, personalities, etc. with colors, and many other similar things. It’s a blessing, really. Imagine having all those psychedelic-like perceptions without actually having to take the drugs that induce them. I know you are probably thinking that I’m absolutely psychologically damaged or that I am indeed taking drugs, but that is absolutely incorrect. I am crazy, but that has nothing to do with this story! Some people –including myself- consider synesthesia as a gift, a special capacity of understanding and sensing that goes far beyond normality. That is why I’m not ashamed about it, although I’ve had a couple of arguments with people that either don’t believe me or think I’m a freak, which I totally understand. But I also find it rather sad, not only because I feel pretty alone -I also pity those who are missing what I’m able to sense. And, while you don’t believe all this, I myself can’t believe you can’t see what I see!
But let’s abandon the artistic side of me for a while and let’s move to next subject: how the hell I got to make all this public lol. Internet became a part of my life in 1999, although I had owned a computer for five years. And even though I only used it for fun in the beginning, I kind of became and addict for a while (a four years period lol). It was only after a year of surfing that I got to meet people who are truly worthy of remembrance, most of them Beatlemaniacs too. That’s one of the reasons I’m so thankful to the Beatles, because it was through them that I met so many wonderful people. I became a regular of the Ciudad Internet’s Beatles chat room (where my nickname was MelisaHarrison in the beginning, and then changed to AppleScruff), and a member of many Yahoo Groups about them, where I met some beautiful people like Chris (England) and Rachel (USA). But it was in the chat room where I met Trick (Argentina), who is a very important part of my life –my Cosmic Bro! I was lucky enough to meet him in person last year, and to repeat the encounter several times. And then there’s the lovely Sheemy! This Canadian girl found me in a Beatles web-site for pen pals and e-mailed me, not knowing that we would become inseparable (almost as if handcuffed lol). And our dreams of meeting in person came true last December, when we spent the grooviest month ever.And now, to finalize with this exposition, let me talk about the role Love had in my life. I’m the kind of person that, after reading tons of romantic novels (Wuthering Heights and Werther are my favourites, no doubt), believes in everlasting true love, destiny, soul mates and all those myths (hehe). Unfortunately, I had to go through some not so pretty experiences till I found what (who) I was looking for. Up to that moment only two men had been able to captivate me: George Harrison and Syd Barrett lol. And out of the blue, The Poet made his entrance. This musician/philosopher/writer/artist became a very special part of my life, first as a friend I told everything to, and then as a lover. Because, you know, Love is a flower, you gotta let it grow…
So I guess that’s all I can write about myself… don’t believe half of it lol. I’m just a girl who studies Literature and Music, which are her main interests (specially the latter), who should be writing in Spanish but prefers English because she spent more years learning how to use it, and who dreams about being famous with a band, or through a best-seller or something like that.
If you still want to explore what’s inside my head, go to my Likes & Dislikes page. Thanks for being bored enough to read this!
P*E*A*C*E,
~*Lucy Hari*~
(a.k.a. Melisa)
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