|
Simon Simonian
Biography
Born. Raised in Yerevan, Armenia... Did this, this and that.
Moved to the States in the age of twenty-some, adapted, adopted,
learned all the tiny intricacies of absorbing different cultures,
yet loved motherland more.
Studied here, became a happy graduate and lived merrily thereafter.
Judging by the lack of commitment, not married. Right?
What else? Kids? Pahoo… Listen! An old man once said to me:
“if you see a kid on the street, approach and hug him. For
he might be yours”. Anyway…
Writing a bio for the new Café-ArmenianHouse venture truly
brings back childhood memories. Last time I was asked to do this
15+ years ago in high school (named after a great aviator who flew
over the Atlantic). The school paper was supposed to be called “Who
I wanna be when I grow up”. Can’t remember what I scribbled
down… I wanted to be everything: an aviator, a stuntman, a
hero with hands made of bronze, an archeologist discovering incarnations
of sand. I even wanted to be a teacher to ask my own students “who
do you wanna be when you grow up?” So that when they do grow
up, they find out the difference between “what you become”
and “what you end up being”.
What I ended up… I ended up an IT developer/engineer/consultant
in Chicago with a cute looking resume and a profound knowledge of
delivering integrated e-solutions to Fortune500 companies by fully
utilizing J2EE 1.3 architecture and streamlining business transaction
and blah blah blah. I ended up living my life merrily thereafter.
What I became… I became a writer.
Maybe I adored the rhythm of Pushkin’s poetry that my mom
was reading to me when I was only few months old. Or maybe I inherited
some of the passion for literature from my parents. In any case,
I read and I wrote. First Russian, then exclusively English. First
I wrote song lyrics for our teenage rock-band, then songs grew into
more serious verses. Thus “me” was born.
At the age of twelve I discovered Akhmatova and Brodsky, Tsvetaeva
and my favorite poet, N.Gumilev. Then came an implacable passion
for Latin American literature. Step in, Senior Jorge Louis Borges.
Step in, Garcia Marquez. What do you know… “Man in the
Box” Kobo Abe? And what about you, my early childhood fiction
writer Mr. Ray Bradbury? You’ve made my world with your Martian
Chronicles, you know? You, Hemmingway. You, Hesse. Rimbaut, Jim
Morrison, canonical Oscar Wilde and dismal Dantes Alighieri... You’ve
created the author of these lines. You’ve taught him to improvise,
to be not afraid of wearing black colors on the snowy terrain. You’ve
made what he became. And I became him.
You know… Honestly, I promised to write a short bio to my
friend Groul (creator of “Café.ArmenianHouse”).
So before this so-called “bio” turns into a weird reminiscence
of a buried essay, let me share more of my age-old wisdom. Why do
I write? To me, writing is no different than any other form of self-expression.
Painting, singing, creating websites or mud sculptures, racing in
car or diving into Niagara… we all portray a little glimpse
of our unseen inner world. Parajanov
portrayed his world through images, Tarkovsky – through silence.
Paul Gaugin – through nude poses of islanders, Komitas –
through sadness of mountain winds formed in a church choir music.
And when your glimpse of inner world finds its audience… finds
others who understand and echo it back. That’s what we call
with one simple word: Happiness. I am happy when you read this.
I am happy because I write.
Yours truly,
Simon Simonian,
Writer, developer/engineer/consultant
and a proud proud proud owner of Razbirat.com
PS. Oh by the way, it’s February 3, 2003 and it’s
snowing in downtown Chicago. This is also a part of my “bio”,
right? Dzez lav nayeq!
|
