I live in a small country called the Philippines. I was born and raised here. I grew up learning to sing, as my parents always play music from their favorite singers. I could still remember myself singing to "The Greatest Love of All", with a bottle of baby powder in my hand as an improvised microphone.
Though the Philippines is a third world country, we are very rich in natural resources. We are hospitable, friendly, family-oriented. More importantly, Filipinos are musically inclined. We have our own music, but it's inevitable that foreign music also influences us.
I grew up listening to Mother's Carpenters and ABBA, and Father's Bee Gees and Eagles, and a little bit of some singers and bands that my cousins liked. But it was when I was a High School Junior that I learned about a different singer. My father brought a lot of CDs with him when he came home from Saudi Arabia (Overseas Workers are pretty much a normal thing in our country), and Jewel was one of them.
The album was entitled "Pieces of You". As soon as her songs played through our stereo speakers, I got hooked. I used to memorize all the lyrics and sing along with them, but that was a long time ago.
However, it's not just the songs and the melody on Jewel's album that captivated me. The stories that she was telling in between the lines kicked my inspiration into high gear...they got me into writing my own poetry.
I did not have that much experience in life, but how Jewel delivers every word and correlates them with the whole feel of the song made me develop my own imagination and create my own experiences. Then it wasn't long before my first love, first heartbreak, first everything...that got me into writing more and more poetry.
The bottom line is: Jewel was the first person to introduce me to poetry and writing. So thank you, Jewel. I owe you my teenage hobby, my young adult creativity, my present work. :)
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