Young author emerges

Today, the Skyline College student is answering questions about the therapeutic nature of her writing that helped her deal with the past pain of family and financial hardship, being a young mother, everyday struggles and sexual abuse. Her book, "From the Walls Inside: Recorded Conversations With Myself,” was released in December, published after the support of teachers and some family members to continue her work.

"The lord has placed in Sonya a very, very special writing talent. I don’t think she was quite aware of it. A deep well of expression, beautiful expression, he merely used me to draw from that well, or to teach her how to draw from that well. I told her that. She was able to realize or recognize this talent and she began to use it,” said creative writing teacher Bessie Vaughns.

Pope wasn’t born into a world keen to creating creative writing authors, yet here she is. Pope was the eldest of a set of twins born in San Francisco. The 37-year-old is the 15th youngest of 18 children — 11 girls and seven boys including three sets of twins. Her father was a carpenter and a sous chef at the Fairmont, while her mother worked in a hospital for 35 years. The family lived for many years in a six-bedroom Victorian house near Turk and Divisadero. The happy, friendly woman attributes her husky voice from the years of yelling down the long, narrow hallway in the house.

She wasn’t inspired to push herself past the family-accepted future — which included many high school dropouts. Pope followed suit. As a young girl, Pope spent most school days in the bathroom, hiding. She was always a bigger girl and feared the ridicule.

"Ever since kindergarten I was so scared,” she said. "I always would hide in the bathroom so I wouldn’t be teased. It wasn’t until first grade that they started sending someone into the bathroom to con me out with a chocolate bar. Everyday was always the same, always afraid.”

There were always dreams of becoming an actress or a singer, but not really. At 11 or 12 years old, Pope figured out what she really wanted to be — not her mother or sisters.

Pope had dreams of being with one man for her children and having less drama.

Problems plagued her through high school, with her attitude resulting in two school changes. Finally, she gave independent studies a try when she became pregnant with the eldest of her four daughters.

Pope dropped out. She ended up living with her boyfriend Benny Pope and his mother — the boy she fell in love with when she walked into a cooking class at 15 and is married to today thanks to a simple note asking if Benny liked Sonya.

The pair eventually got married. Pope was scared into it, when her sister told her fornication was a sin in the bible. Today, the pair has four girls: Shakari, 17; Brittany, 15; Jaiasia, 9; and Jaaziah, 5.

The couple struggled at times. Benny Pope even rode to work from San Francisco to the See’s factory in South City on a 10-speed bike for a while. Sonya Pope became a driver. She hated it and wasn’t sad when she was let go. In 1999, Pope began her quest back to school, not for her high school diploma, just to become more acclimated to school. She ended up quitting because of the need to help her family, eventually finding a position in food service with the South San Francisco Unified School District — the school district which was then their own. Her children attended the schools, making the schedule perfect and the couple saved on childcare.

Pope was happy until she found out she was pregnant with her fourth daughter, Jaaziah. It was a struggle to accept for the mother-to-be who finally had a job she loved. After Jaaziah’s birth, Pope was inspired to return to school when her daughters looked at her with sadness when they realized she didn’t have her high school diploma.

Entering Skyline College had sentimental meaning, but also required Pope to take general education classes like English. Pope was told by others not to take professor Vaughns' class, but ended up in it anyway.

"I’m thankful I was placed in the English class. I needed her teacher; her discipline was needed. Every Monday we were given an assignment and I had so much more to say. We’d be reading this text about life and I could relate to it,” said Pope.

Her essays were again and again returned with notes asking her to publish the work.

"She got into my class by mistake. I’m used to that, I’ve heard it often. I have too much work and I’m very demanding. But if they stay with me for several weeks then they discover, ‘I can do it and I learned,’ and she was the same way. She stayed in and discovered she was being motivated,” said Vaughns.

Pope wasn’t encouraged by all to pursue her dreams of being published. In her family, only two sisters have ever read her book. Others wanted the past to stay in the past. Benny Pope just encouraged his wife to follow her wants, for once.

"When you’re used to doing stuff for others, when you’re constantly that person, it’s hard doing things for yourself,” he said.

He recognized this in his wife. She found strength in his support to move on with the project sharing heart-felt emotional work with the world. Her writing also put her in touch with strong women like Anyta Archer and Bri’ Larrimore — sisters who invested time and effort into the book cover and artwork. Pope attributes some of her success to that support.

It’s one of the first times Pope was surrounded by strong, supportive women.

"The artwork had been a ‘conversational’ piece in my home for as long as I had owned it,” said Larrimore. "We were looking at a picture of a young woman looking at a picture of another woman. This is a reminder that at some time or another God allows us the opportunity to step back, stop a moment, sometimes a moment for one may be longer for another and reflect upon our life, our past and our present, and what we see is so very personal.”

The experience taught her to want more and strive to inspire her girls to want more.

"I want people to understand we can overcome the pains of our past so we can focus on other things,” said Pope.

Pope will be featured at the Skyline Bookstore author event 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 8 on campus, 3300 College Drive, San Bruno, building 6, room 6202.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.