Once I met a man named Pepe. He was a peculiar individual with sharp eyes, a cracked smile, and a distinct smell of burning wood that seemed to follow him wherever he went. It was like the positive kind of incense that you find in the mom and pop shops in your neighborhood, not the cheap kind you find in convenience stores.
We met while I was watching some friends play pool. Pepe approached me and asked if I had any matches. I passed him a lighter, and he asked if he could take it outside with him.
As we were talking, Pepe asked me what I did for a living and told him I was a writer.
He asked if I had ever been published, and I replied I hadn’t.
Pepe then asked about those who might want to read my work but had never had the chance. I responded that they never asked, and I didn’t know what chance they were referring to. Pepe explained he meant the chance to read my work, appreciate my art, feel it, or even live it. I told him that maybe I would show my work, but I didn’t know how.
Pepe asked me how I planned to do that and I responded I would read it on the street if I had to. He asked what I would do if people didn’t want to listen, and I replied that the ones who wanted to listen were the groups I was looking for. Pepe told me that if I never showed my work, they would never know.
Pepe encouraged me to help myself, and I said that I would. Pepe is the type of person who can make you do things you didn’t realize you were capable of. I remember asking him, “What if they don’t understand my work?” and he replied, “It doesn’t matter. Find your voice and it will carry your feelings. You will make them hear even if they don’t listen. They will cry once they get home and they will never know what hit them or where they are.”
So here I am, carrying my voice in a second language that I’ve only spoken for less than a third of my life. But Pepe has pushed me to do things that make me uncomfortable.
He has challenged me to achieve things I wasn’t doing before. I wonder what Pepe would ask you to do? What would he challenge you to achieve that you’re not currently doing?