Do you guys remember the thrill you got back in your elementary school days when your teacher said

“Students, we’re going to have a field trip..”

Yeah.. that feeling popped up to me again last week when Dr. Luger announced that our class was going to have a field trip to the library. It might sounds a little bit childish, but trust me, that was just what a university student needs after tons of assignments and midterms. We went to the part of the Irving Library that collects rare books, special collections, maps, archival materials that focuses on people from BC that I never knew it existed before.

Chelsea Shriver was the kind librarian who first gave us brief explanations about archives and how it differs from libraries. Archives are collections of documents created and received by a person or organization as records. Archives are considered as primary resources in forms of unpublished letters, journals, etc. Archives are unique materials since there are only one copy of each item and you can’t find it anywhere else.

It was so fascinating to see archives from a book titled Obasan written by Joy Kagawa that my ATSU class had been discussing for the past two weeks. Seeing the drafts of the book got me thinking like

“Wow.. this is what the book that I read supposed to be like..”

Not only the drafts that amazed me but other documents such as letters from the readers (especially the drawings and little notes from the kids, they were so funny), rejection letters, appreciation letters, her collections of data before writing the book and many more (pictures below). It was so cool to be able to see the documents of the book that you already read, you somehow can relate to it. I also came across to just a blank ripped piece of paper and still, it looks cool.

Draft of Obasan

Kagawa wanted to use the title If I Must Remember at first instead of Obasan

Shriver also mentioned that If we got famous one day, they will accept our documents and store it alongside with the other archival documents. Since being known for something good is what I always want in the future, I will gladly send my documents to UBC one day if that dream really come true.

I’m gonna end this blog post now, again, if you have any questions or anything to say please don’t hesitate to leave comments down below!

– Inneke Soeyanto

Works Cited:

• Kogawa, Joy. Manuscript draft of Obasan. n.d. ms. Box 8 File 2. Joy Kogawa fonds. University of British Columbia Library Rare Books and Special Collections, Vancouver, Canada.
• Kogawa, Joy. Manuscript draft of Obasan. n.d. ms. Box 8 File 11. Joy Kogawa fonds. University of British Columbia Library Rare Books and Special Collections, Vancouver, Canada.

“Forgetting”, what do you guys think when you hear the word forgetting? You probably define it like the way I used to, the act of not remembering.

Used to?

Yeah, used to.

How? Why?

Because last week, in my art studies class we had an assignment where we had to read scholarly articles and examine on how those scholars define the word “forgetting”. As I was reading the last article I found titled Technological remembering/ forgetting: A Faustian bargain? by Yoni Van Den Eede, she defines the word “forgetting” as “Forgetting – that means, selecting what to remember and what not” (Eede 171). She then relates it in terms of digital memory which we can equate the term “forgetting” with “delete” which means selecting what to delete and what to keep. Then there it was, that eye opening moment I had and million things, feelings and memories went through my mind and how suddenly I can relate so much to a simple word like “forgetting”.

Eede states that keeping digital memories may cause individuals to become completely wrapped up in memories that we would not rather remember which then make us unable to move on from the past (Eede 172) or like your friends might say “you have to delete every pictures you’ve taken with your ex so you can move on”. Honestly, I am the type of person who is always have a hard time of letting go of the past which means I always find it difficult to delete pictures, posts, etc that I know I should delete in order for me to look forward in life, but I usually chose to keep them instead. Because I personally think that by deleting pictures or any types of digital memories from the past, it feels like I’m deleting bunch of memories or feelings from a certain period of time in my life which is something that I hate. I think digital memories are supposed to be kept no matter how bad it is because it represents a certain period of time in our lives that we might wanna look back someday. I also think that by deleting digital memories, it would help us to forget about those painful events, but just for awhile and not forever though, nor getting rid of the painful feelings, since digital memories are just tools or representations of the memories/events but not the memories itself.

Talking about digital memories, I want to add that pictures are the same as music, a very powerful tool to bring back old memories because just by looking at it, we will recall of what was happening that time, it will also bring up old feelings either bad or good and getting emotional, e.g, crying, laughing or even pissed by recalling of what happened when that picture was taken or the memories that pops up in your head when you look at it.

You guys may only see a picture of a window above, but for me, it means so much more than just a window. That picture was taken on winter 2012 while me and my family were enjoying cheese fondue in the cold weather of Switzerland. That picture never fails to make me smile because it reminds me of how happy we were at that time.

Hahah, this post is getting kinda personal, eh? I remember getting a feedback from Dr. Luger saying that my first blog post was great but it needs to be more personal, yet this blog post is way too personal. I think I’m just gonna stop now before I start telling you guys my whole life story. Again, if you have any thoughts or questions just leave comments down below!

– Inneke S