Would it be interesting for you to learn that the one main thing I wanted to be as a kid was a writer? To be able to make up characters and stories seemed like a dream come true. All I would have to do is put pen to paper and I would be able to fly away to another land or another life. Now don't get me wrong I love my life but the idea that all I would have to do is write a story and I could drift away to a life I could never live sounded amazing. Even as a kid I would come up with the weirdest stories of, shoot outs, to destroying aliens, all the way to becoming the best football player ever. These stories helped me to develop into the person I am today.
I must admit that I had this dream up until about junior year of high school. That is the year that my love for writing faded away. You may wonder what happened but don't fear because I am going to tell you. My junior year of High School I was in an Honor's English class and our portfolio piece for that year was a short story. I was totally pumped because I had been working on a piece for awhile and really wanted some input on it. Now understand that up to this point in English classes I had done really well. I had people encouraging me about my writing and giving me good criticism in hopes of making my writing better. But my junior year started a downward spiral that over the next 2 years made me lose a love for writing.
When I turned in my short story my teacher ripped it apart and instead of trying to help me with it told me it would better if I learned to write again. This was very heart breaking and whenever I tried to work with him on it he really was not willing to help. This discouraged me a lot. I ended up getting my lowest English grade in that class. I did so badly that instead of being recommended for AP English for my senior year I ended up being put in College Prep English. My senior year was even worse than my Junior.
Senior Year of High School in Kentucky is the year that you finish up your writing portfolio and submit it to be graded. I had worked pretty hard on it but yet I still needed one more piece to complete it. With the help of a teacher I wrote out a short poem based off my short story from the year before. When I finally submitted the piece my teacher confronted me about plagiarism and told me that the teacher who helped me with it had to of written it. This discouraged me deeply because I had worked very hard on that poem. Poems were not something I was good at. The reason I had help was because the teacher was having to help teach me how to write a good poem. That whole drama even escalated to the point were I had to sit down with one of the vice principles. I ended up telling the Vice Principle that I am not writing another piece and if that means I flunk my portfolio so be it.
I was so discouraged by this but thankfully they ended up accepting my portfolio. I even received a Distinguished score on it which was the highest score you could receive but from that point on for about 3 years my desire to write anything went out the window. I never tried very hard and in college tended to turn in my first draft of papers. Effort was something I never put in anymore.
So how did I get from being apathetic to writing to writing this blog? Well to answer that I have to go to my Junior year of college. At that point I was going through some tough times and was trying to find an outlet for my struggles. I began to just write it all down and slowly the love for writing returned. I could easily begin to write and off I would go into another world. I could go back to a time when things were easier or just go into another universe. Since then writing has helped me express myself in many ways. Of course in my blog I do not put a lot of effort into grammar and punctuation but the love has returned. Do I think I will ever write a book? I am not sure but it would be kind of fun.
Well thanks for taking the time to read my journey as a writer. I was having writers block so I thought writing about this journey would be good. Hope you enjoyed.
