I was inspired to enter the Ocean Awareness Writing Contest by a teacher. I had never before entered a writing contest, and she felt it would be a valuable experience. This writing contest had a list of set topics to choose from.
Generational Knowledge was a category that provided a broad range of different writing choices, which inspired me to write a memoir piece about my family back in Korea.
In the memoir, I recall my journey into the Korean Mountain, where family graves are set within the surrounding nature, rather than beside busy city roads.
From the sways of pine trees, the buzzes of cicadas, and the softness of the ground still damp from rain, I reflected around any descriptions of imagery I could remember. The title revolves around daffodils, something my great grandmother used to love and care for in her own garden.
The flower flows through the story as a quiet representation of her softness and the attention she gave us all our lives.
Writing gave me a chance to reflec on experiences in my childhood, my relatives back in Korea, and to see how nature is an important aspect in my life, as I found life and beauty in the usually somber surroundings of my ancestral cemetery.