My Writing Experience

A good 99% of students have seen, written, or read at least one word during their time in school. And I myself, am no different. As an extremely studious student, who has come to appreciate the art of pen and paper, I may say that writing is quite the adventure. A roller coaster of many emotions, anxiety, jubilation, dismay, or even astonishment as one completes an essay. I recall one of my first encounters with the world of words, meeting my first essay back in elementary school, 3rd grade, the summer of ‘09, my fabulous teacher, Mrs. Culp, decided we should write about our summer vacation. At those words, a million thoughts began to race through my head. What should I include? Is going to Las Vegas interesting? How many paragraphs? Though

As the words began to take shape, and the sentences fell into place, I glanced at my previous sections. I felt only embarrassment as I could barely comprehend what I had wrote. But my determination held fast, and I continued to tell my tale, scribbling words like a mad man, filling up each and every line of the page, clumsily flipping over the page to continue my piece. The experience was comparable to receiving a flu shot, a painful but at the same time, beneficial. This line of reasoning kept me going, no matter if my ‘essay’ read like a fool’s rant. Despite my lack of confidence in my work, I still had to turn a paper. With a red tint dusting my cheeks, I shamefully passed forward my unwieldy two pages of jumbled words to my seatmates. To my surprise, I learned that I had received an A+ on the paper. I eagerly grabbed my paper and impatiently waited for that final bell to ring so I could show my parents the fruits of my labor. That endeavor was one of the many lessons I had learned over the years about writing, to be confident and to rely on your head to weave a story for

Sonzena to write an original story, with only 10 minutes on the clock. At the time, I had little experience with writing such a story, despite me being an avid consumer of fantasy and fiction novels. After all, most of our school assignments had been based around factual reports and summaries, with hard reality backing them up. So, again I entrenched myself in my fortress of thought, using fictional tropes, colorful words, and careful characterization, I was able to fabricate a short story of a lonesome man who was reminiscing about what little he has done during life as his final minutes encroached on him. Although I had success creating fact-based articles, my nerves flared at the thought of writing a work of fiction. Alas, I was chosen to read my project aloud, I took a deep breath and began to speak. When I finally finished, I was confused as I saw my classmates erupt into raucous applause, while earning a smile of approval from black-clad teacher. In that moment, I learned that a writer must be flexible with the way they write, to be able to create any work of literature, be it reports to children’s novels. When I reached my high school year, the theatre of writing changed dramatically for me. No longer was writing a leisure task, with time for brainstorming and daydreaming, but an exercise in mental agility and wit. Writing at the