Hello from Turkey
Bonjour from Istanbul
Hallo from Beyoglu
Ciao from Galata Tower
Merhaba from Hagia Sofia
Do you know what the first step that carries a call for peace in all languages, turns all the bad thoughts in our souls upside down, brings the dialogue on the same color, destroys distances, and brings people closer together?
It’s a warm “hello”.
I wanted to start my first article in “ArtTmodernmiami Newspaper” with these sincere feelings. Although there are many reasons to explain when I was asked what writing means to you or why you are writing, a short “memoir” for me is the best answer to this question. I want to talk about the education system when I was in high school. The first year of high school education was mixed classes. In the second year, the classes were divided into two, under the name of “Science” and “Literature”, according to the student’s area of interest. I was a successful student up to this point. Even though I don’t like science classes very much, I always managed to keep my success high-level thanks to literature classes. We were going to choose a department before the second year of high school started. When my closest friends preferred the science department, I was caught by the wind and enrolled in the science department. Everything was fine until now, but the only thing that went wrong in the following days was my failure in classes. Even though I said, “Don’t fail Nafiye’ study your classes”, neither the formulas loved me, nor I loved them.
My success graph gradually decreased, and I was confused about the formulas. So, what would happen now? How was Nafiye going to save herself? The first thing that comes to mind of an unsuccessful student is cheating. I was going to cheat, too. I was going to start my first copy attempt with physics, which was one of the lessons I disliked. The idea was good, but look at how the implementation happened. The most distinctive feature of our physics teacher was that she asked all classes the same question in the exam. She had done the first exam in the A branch. We excitedly received questions. The answers have been prepared. Nafiye, if you tried to answer these questions, these would not have happened to you. Do you know what I did? I followed my friends. I prepared an answer sheet, I was going to change the papers in the exam. I was sitting in the back row of the class. The exam has started. I was staring at the questions I had no idea about. Meanwhile, the first lines of a new story come to life in my mind. I don’t want to wait. I follow the physics teacher. At the most appropriate time, I will replace the question sheet with the paper with the answers. The novice copycat won’t have the best time. She is in a panic and a hurry, just like me. In the meantime, the development part of the story was being written in my brain. The physicist walked the long classroom corridor, came up to me, looked at my paper, and turned around. I said this is the time. You will face the consequences of your first copy attempt soon. With the teacher’s back turned, I quickly took the paper with the answers onto the desk. I was thinking I almost died. I don’t know if the teacher noticed the strangeness in me or if she came back again for no reason. The teacher was coming towards me. Don’t come, please! The exam paper is full of formulas. While I was trying to pretend to faint or what to do, the teacher came up to me. When the teacher looked at my paper carefully, she didn’t turn around and leave this time! She looked at the paper. Then she looked at my face. I don’t remember those moments very much. Where am I, what am I doing, who am I, all of them have been erased from my brain in an instant. In two minutes, all the formulas were written, and all the questions were solved; how quickly did you do it, Nafiye? she said. “Vallahi,” I said, stammering, “it just came to my mind.” She reached for my paper and took it. “Come on, she said, write down what comes to your mind again.” I couldn’t write the formulas…
What did I do too? I just wrote the story that danced in my brain on the exam paper. Although a few more people were caught after me, the majority of the class managed not to be caught. They saved their years by getting 100 full points while we got zeros in the exam. My only consolation was that the physicist said, “You wrote your story very well,” in addition to the zero score I got on the exam. I couldn’t succeed in whatever I did that year; I failed the class because of the physics course. There was the failure of those years. You either put it on hold for a year or repeat the class. I couldn’t suffer another year in the science department. I had chosen the option to wait for class for a year. After long efforts, I managed to give my lectures and enrolled in the literature department for the last year of high school; I got my essence and completed my high school life with approved success…
I’ve been writing ever since. I write about my experiences, my civil wars, my imaginations and disappointments, my future, my hopes, my loves, my observations of the neighbor, the neighbor’s chicken, and above all, my observations. That physics exam, which has been the architect of my today, has been one of the best memories of my life for literature. I would like to share the story I wrote in the exam I took zero in the following articles.
I have always loved literature, reading, writing, and producing.
When the idea of losing what I wrote one day disturbed me, I decided to publish a book. When the calendars showed August of 2020, my first work, “Güzeşte” and then “Serbülent Apartmanı” in January 2022 met with the reader. The story “Eyvah Dünürler Geldi” in Serbülent Apartmanı was shot as a short film last spring as part of a social responsibility project. My third book, “A Photographic Story from Prague to Beyoğlu”, has completed the editorial process and has reached the publication stage. At the same time, I am a columnist for Mersin Newspaper. I have a lot to write and a lot to say. We are meeting you in the ARTTMODERNMIAMI Newspaper, the contemporary voice of art, culture, and life.
I, who loves irony and uses it frequently in my daily life, say “hello” to you by promising to get away from daily fatigue and make a small smile in my column called “Let’s Smile”.
Nafiye BOZKURT
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