Ludmila Cerovská

I started creative writing in elementary school. I remember a moment when my essay was circulating among the desks during class and my classmates were demanding that the teacher read it aloud in front of the class. The assignment was clearly "The story must include a trip to the zoo and a chimpanzee's escape from his cage". I added the plot that a UFO had flown in and abducted the chimp. The kids laughed and the teacher nervously said, "But you made that up, didn't you? That didn't happen!"

Laughter and emotion, the greatest reward from readers (listeners) I have tasted since I was in first grade in elementary school.

 

In second grade, I fell in love with writing and reading completely. No doubt the English teacher had a hand in this. He once said to me, "For God's sake, Lída, how could you write such a long essay, I'll read it over the weekend."

I didn't even write on the assigned topic then. In the essay, I think I was apologizing for my rudeness and some misunderstandings. The next day, the teacher told me that I was writing like a grown woman and that although I was full of spelling mistakes, the content was so good that I got an A. Again, that heady feeling that something had stirred an emotion in the reader. Even though one reader was approached, it was worth writing and improving.

I've written a few articles for the public on Sport.cz and I write short pieces on Facebook.

 

My motivation and goals, wide and far, can be expressed in Buddhist terms - "BE HAPPY AND HELP OTHERS IN THEIR HAPPINESS". I'm not a Buddhist and I don't currently subscribe to any religion or spiritual direction, although I have had those tendencies in the past, and different ones (to all sides of the world). The journey is the destination, and I see that more clearly in writing than in other areas.

 

I am actively participating in the Energy of Words project to keep me motivated to develop my talents in good times and bad until indifference divides us. Me and my talent I mean. I will choose themes for my work inspired by everyday life, but occasionally I will let the chimpanzee aliens take over.

While being happy and helping others in this, I also like to face my fears. For example, I read horror movies. Not because I like to be afraid, but because I like to become resistant to fear.

 

I'm not sure if I can sneak this aspect into my writing, but since I now have a profession (a calling) where I need this kind of resistance, a little bit might. I work as an aunt at the Kangaroo Fund for Vulnerable Children.

 

I do laundry, cook, clean, and accompany children to schools and doctors' appointments, trying to make them happy and to find in their turbulent fate the unwavering certainty that every problem has a solution. What I am trying to express now could be described in one particular dream.

A boy of 13, whom I was caring for, once said to me, "I think I dreamt that".

I ask him what he was dreaming about and he says, "I can't even tell you that, Auntie!"

After a moment of coaxing, he tells me, "I dreamt I went out on the patio and there you were, stabbed with a knife, covered in blood, and I'm running to get my phone to record it, but you're here, so I guess I dreamt it."

The boy slowly wakes up from his dream, he is holding his cell phone in his hand in confusion and he wants to film me on the patio, but he sees me in the kitchen, so I answer him, "So you see I'm here and I'm okay, so it was a dream, but next time you could run for the phone to call for help!"

And the boy says, "It was just a dream, Auntie."

 

And it's that touch of terror and fear that I'd like to incorporate into my writing, but just a touch, I'm still holding on to my goal, my way of being happy and helping others in that.

And if I ever manage to scare you, dear reader, the instructions on how to end the terror with peace of mind are in the next few lines or in between.