*** This story was written as an assignment for journalism class, when my teacher asked us to write our first memory with media. I just want to share with you guys

I was 4 when I first learnt how to read. To celebrate that, my uncle decided to show us, my 6-year-old brother and me, his old book collection and let us pick any book we liked. My brother chose first. He picked a series of about 60 Japanese comic books; and I picked a handbook titled: "Funny quotes of 60 GREATEST MEN". My family made a fuss about it. They were all like: "Wow, she is only 4 but already inspired by great men." I couldn’t tell them that I picked the book just because there wasn’t any comic book left, and this handbook was the shortest one I could pick.

Since my family was so obsessed by the idea that I’d also become great one day, they subscribed me a lot of newspapers to read. I wasn’t very happy with that idea. Name me any alive normal human being that was interested in reading newspapers at 4! But I didn’t want to lose the potato chips my Mom bought to improve my reading session either! So I pretended that I read something. The only page I read was the funny stories section.

As I read more and more, I aspired to write funny stories. After few first attempts, I was foisted with the talent of creating funny stories that can make nobody laugh. I almost gave up when I got my first piece of writing published. It earned me 50.000VND, equivalent to around 3USD at that time, which was enough for me to buy potato chips for the whole month. I realized that the easiest source for ideas was what my great Grandma said when she watched TV. My favorite was when she complained: "People in the TV are so rude. They looked at me, I said Hi to them but they didn’t even reply." or when she complimented: "TV is great. If you shut down the image, it sounds exactly like a radio."

Soon enough, people started to recognize me as a funny person. Sometimes it’s cool, like when you in a gathering and you can make everybody laugh. But sometimes it’s not. I remember when my best friend told me that he was sexually harassed by a gay, as usual, I made a joke to cheer him up :"Look at the bright side, you are so hot that even a gay wants you." He didn’t talk to me for a week.

However, no matter how much potato chips I could buy with my funny career, I never thought that it’d lead to anything serious. But it did! I started to hang out with media people and they encouraged me to write, I mean, serious writing. They gave me an assignment to cover the story of a girl who was heavily abused by her own parents. The story was shocking, the pictures were terrifying. It was an unforgettable experience to see for the first time that my writing can make people cry instead of laughing.

This was when I realized the power of writing. It can make people cry, it can make people laugh, and it can make me indulge myself in. I write more and more, and now I’m writing my first book. I used to wonder what would happen if I didn’t pick that random book at the first place; but now it doesn’t matter anymore. I love writing, that’s all, and I will continue doing so as long as it still helps me buy potato chips. J/k

Tags: Childhood, Chip, Media