Today, my memory returned to the time when I held the pen for the first time. I began to draw unknown and meaningless things expressing what I felt but I did not really know what they were.

Overlapping lines that darken the white paper and many directives urging me to hold the pen in a good way characterized the beginnings of my writing. I knew how to hold the pen and write. I knew the value of what I write when I worked in the press and the people read my words. I experienced a new world and a new life when I started working in the Syria Times Newspaper. I wrote for the sake of writing, not because of studying and memorizing, knowing that people will read what I wrote and this makes me very happy.

The most beautiful days of my life were spent during my work in the newspaper, but my happiness did not last because our newspaper was, due to technical reasons, closed on June 8 2008. 

So once again, I began to write and notify my words on my pages to read them alone.

Fortunately, after a period of time, our dear daily was re-launched again. It was on October 6 2012 at the directive of the Syrian Minister of Information, Mr. Omran

al-Zou'bi. I was very happy when I received the good news. So from now on my pen will write news and articles which will be read by people all over the world.

When I knew that the newspaper will be re-launched via the web, I was very sad and I felt that my joy will not be completed. I used to read a lot of publications through the Internet during the past few years, but I consider that my relationship with the paper is stronger and more intimate

I was so sad, but when I think about it, I realized that a lot of people do not  read the "paper copy" of the newspapers, any more, they, instead take the news and all the information they want from the Internet.

I don't really know whether our feelings and emotions can be expressed deeper and more truthful across the internet than on paper. What I really know is that my love to paper and pen exceeds my love for any thing else.  It is true that the e- publishing has larger number of readers and spread wider but paper will not lose its intimacy and warmth.

Writing at the beginning was nothing but images and forms painted on rocks and walls of the caves and on large stones .Writing has evolved to be written in letters of special type such as the Cuneiform writing. When man invented papers the relationship between man and papers and ink continues for thousands of years.

From the beginning, the beautiful script is the basic means that distinguishes writers and the sanctity of writing, makes it restricted to a small number of people or priests or temples.

 At present, I feel as if time were repeating itself. In the electronic publishing we read from a hard and lifeless object is but a different kind, as writing is changed.

"You must keep pace with the civilization of electronic publishing, as they say, and that you have to have your own computer to read what the other  write". It is true that if you own the tools and technology of modern age, you can find thousands, even millions of publications now, but you will never have that kind of privacy that paper-writing can give .You have the right to own what you read and keep it in the libraries that adorn the homes of a large number of our fathers. One may say that he who owns the money was luckier to read more and to learn more. Now, during the internet age, science and knowledge have become more common and more prevalent. It is true, but the smell of paper and ink and the aesthetic of the printed characters will remain my greatest love.

Amal Farhat