LaToya S. Watkins | I Have Always Wanted to Be Change

‘Tis 12:03 a.m. and I am still awake, sitting in front of my computer. I have tried the bed this evening, but it is not very inviting at the moment. I am tired and in need of rest, but she does not beckon me tonight. I chipped away at several freelance projects and my own second novel today, so I must admit that I have been removed from myself by Khaled Hosseini. I saw the movie first, The Kite Runner, and afterward I was compelled to read the book. As I finished the last page just before bed last night, I cried.

I marveled at the idea that a stranger could move me and change who I am, even if just by a tiny bit. I experienced some of the sadness and sorrow that must have resided deep within him to allow such a beautiful yet tragic work to come forth. Strangely, I connected pieces of the story with J. California Cooper’s Some People Some Other Place. However, the sadness of the two stories was the only correlation I made. Sadness all over the world, I suppose—sadness that if revealed in literature or art, period, can inject change in humanity. Or perhaps, it is revealed through art, but is ceaseless, which is sadness just the same.

And even through my tears in both experiences of sadness, I felt more love than anything—I felt God. After all, he is love, right? So, I concluded that both these authors achieved what God intended for them to do. They did not create dramatic twists and turns of their plots to shock their readers. They applied pieces of themselves—their lives and their pain—to change the reader. And as I sit and ponder upon every word that I have written and will ever write, I pray that I hear God. I pray that characters like Marcus, Mia, and Kenu from my own IN LOVE WITH LOSERS, can move you just as much as Hassan and Amir from Hosseini’s THE KITE RUNNER, or perhaps as much as Ha and Lona from Cooper’s, SOME PEOPLE SOME OTHER PLACE, moved me. I pray that my work keeps you up a second, a minute, even hours longer at night than what is usual for you. I pray that my work offers change. After all, literature should evoke change, who would I be to require anything less from the power that God has given me to create it?

LaToya S. Watkins has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. For her, reading has always been an escape from the sometimes harsh realities of life, while writing offers a chance to recreate it (life). She received her B.A. in Literary Studies from University of Texas at Dallas. She has been published in Thought magazine as a contest winner, Work.com as a freelance writer, and TWINS Magazine as a contributor. She currently works as an editor at the Schlager Group Inc. in Dallas, Texas. LaToya resides in Plano, Texas with her husband, Arnold, their three children (Jeremiah, Jordan and Dymond), and two dogs.