The greatest compliment

I have been writing for seven years now. I have been writing seriously for not more than three years. Before that, it used to be a past time. I used to write to express something, because I thought that I was somewhere special. It has been in the last year and a half, that I consider my writing as a serious venture.

It began as a personal thing, for my eyes alone, and then passed on to the eyes of the one person whose comments I valued. It was when I realized that I was getting better; I decided to let the world read it.

Through the means of the blog I keep, I get some comments. The best comment came last night. Most of the people who are regular readers of my blog, I chat with. For privacy sake, I shall not name that person.

Last night we met online and started talking about neutral things. That person suddenly asks me if I can do them a favor. We have become good friends and the request surprised me. I told them that I would if it were in my powers.

That person told me that they have a cultural thing in their college and they have to submit something for that. They were wondering if they could take one of mine and submit it.

On the face of it, this seems like copying. I generally am very possessive about my pieces. The fact that someone wants to take something that I created and make it their own intrigued me. If you look deeply, you will see that they are telling me indirectly that they really like my work and would like to be like me.

Is this not the greatest compliment ever? To be recognized is something, to have someone tell you that you are doing a good job, is amazing, but then to have your writing taken with your permission is something.

In fact, that person need not have even asked me. All they needed to do was go to the blog, (they have linked my blog to theirs) and take what they please. The very fact that they waited to ask me shows the integrity of the person. That person told me that if I was not ok with the entire thing, I could refuse. That person thanked me in the end, but I am the one who needs to thank them, for giving me the best compliment that I have ever received. I hope that they read this entry. This is to tell them that I have no ill feelings and am thankful for the compliment.

Thank you.
Dated: 9th August 2006