Writing History

Rachel C. Johnson
English 111
8/26/08

Am I a poet? Sadly I’m not a huge fan of listening to it let alone writing it. So am I a songwriter? I love to listen to music, but can’t say that I was blessed with the gift to combine words with melodies. Now do I write stories? I love to read, but no I can’t say that I can see myself creating them. I am not a writer. I simply write because I am told too.

I used to enjoy writing. When I was younger I always kept a journal. I would always find the time to express how I felt about a particular day. But once I became a “teenager” or “young adult” it changed. I didn’t like talking to a blank page. It didn’t seem real to me. I no longer wanted to use my imagination. Why should I when I had T.V. and a cell phone to my convenience. Also I realized that there were better writers than me! When it’s just you and your diary, you are the best. When it was time to learn how to write essays my whole idea on writing changed. I liked how I was writing before and enjoyed doing it when I wanted too. Not when I was made to do it. That’s when writing stopped being an interest of mine and became a job.

My teachers never taught writing as a passion or a way of expressing yourself. It always translated as: “Write about this and write it like that.” I wasn’t given the opportunity to discover myself. Sometimes If I couldn’t see the teachers love for writing and teaching it, I didn’t see the reason why I should care about it. I don’t blame it all on my English teachers in the past. I blame myself as well. I should have encouraged myself to keep writing. Instead I let other things put a negative influence on me.

So I have to admit, I just recently had a beautiful experience with writing. I went to the Cleveland School of the Arts and my major there was Theater. So for my senior year our assignment was to write a play and the scripts that were good would be produced in the annual New Play Festival. I couldn’t help but be excited! I love theater! Writing a script was an experience that I will never forget. It was hard, exhausting, frustrating, and exhilarating. When I watched and performed in my finished product on stage I finally felt what writers had been feeling all along, that feeling of being content, happy, relieved, and blissful.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t call myself a writer. I still grunt when I have to type a paper. Since I love to act, I would describe myself as a vocal person. I prefer to talk about it then write about it. That way I don’t have to worry about punctuation marks and having 5 or more sentences in a paragraph. But I can say that there is hope that I someday will.