Righting
To write or not to right
I love writing. It was always a school subject that I loved, that I felt easy with, that I looked forward to. Translating my thoughts, ideas, and emotions into written form is a special process. There came a time, however, when the lights turned off on my writing. It probably coincided with the time the classroom lights turned off. There was no authoritative figure holding me accountable, no teacher grading my work holding the carrot of an A in front of me. I stopped writing because I didn’t have to. It’s like a professional athlete in their offseason when they take time away from the gym. But since school never went back in session (I graduated UC Berkeley in 2005) my writing didn’t have an explicit reason to return from holiday break. My writing muscles atrophied like Tony Gywnn’s (Gwynn is my SD Padres hero, for the record).
Now that I’ve turned 30, mortality has started to settle in. The infinite shot clock of your childhood years loses reality. I’m getting older. And that’s ok (it’s great actually), but you start to think about things like your legacy. I can’t play the guitar, or create a charcoal painting , or birdie 16 on Augusta…but I can write. So let this Medium post start a renaissance in my writing years; a new chapter fueled by the experiences of my 20s, the pieces of wisdom I’ve collected along the way, the lessons absorbed from each person, place and experience.
As I start this adventure, inspired in part by Medium.com’s beautiful design and powerful platform, I will be gentle with myself and fade down the nagging critic in my head. My words don’t have to be ‘right;’ I simply must write. I’m letting go of great’s enemy: perfection. I’m just gonna write — because it’s fun, because it’s a great release, because someone at some point may benefit just a little from my words.
It’s time to dust off the weights at the gym. Offseason is over.
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