At the age of six I wrote my first poem. It was a poem written for my mom for Mother’s Day. “You are like a rose, you started as a small bud, and became a beautiful rose, with lots of petals…” I don’t remember the rest, but I have to ask my mom to find it and share it with me. I know, it is somewhere in one of her thousand memory boxes. Well, that was the beginning, of me writing poems. Soon after, I realized that when I write I can express myself best, explain how I feel; my fears, my pain, my happy moments and love. Around middle school, I started writing silly poems for friends and family, because I loved making them laugh. I used a lot of rhyming, and everyone kept on asking for more. But then, I moved to America, and my life changed a bit. So I kept on writing in my diary. A couple years later, I thought to try and write in English, well English is not my first language, but I was living long enough here, and felt ready to “translate” my thoughts. I’m sure I still make mistakes, but I am very comfortable writing in English, and sometimes I feel I can express myself better in English than Greek. Which is crazy! And, that was the start to something beautiful, because now, as a mother writing poems helps me forget about the struggles and reminds me that being a mother is a blessing. I look into my children’s’ eyes and all I can see is the “light”. My heart gets filled with love, a love that I never felt before.

Love,

Mamastina