School Didn’t Want Me to Become a Writer but I’m Writing Anyway
Apologies to all my English teachers
What in the world am I doing?
The fact that I’m writing this blows my mind… well not necessarily writing about this topic but writing in general.
If you had asked my family or friends when I was 16 or even 18 if I was a writer, they wouldn’t know what to say. If they were less polite people, I assure you, they would have laughed. Hell, even I would have laughed.
Tedious, boring, stressful, time-consuming, anxiety-ridden, not my forté, — The list goes on and on. This was what writing was to me, 6 years ago.
Inspiring, refreshing, stimulating, new, exciting, therapeutic, respectable, engaging, fun, passion,— The list goes on and on. This is today.
Now, I’m not a linguist nor an editor, but I am pretty certain that you could easily find at least some differences between these two lists.
What changed?
To answer that, we have to look at why school “didn’t want” me to become a writer —
Analysis writing, annotated bibliographies, book reports, case studies, comparison papers, essays, position papers, research papers — you get the point. There were so many assignments…
Yes, these were all important to have completed; extremely helpful even. It improved many of my writing skills but in no way, shape, or form, have they made me want to become a writer.
But how could they have? These assignments didn’t interest me and I was never asked what interested me in the first place when it came to writing.
Writing never came easily to me. I knew I wouldn’t be like Stephen King, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, or Maya Angelou. I didn’t find the same enthusiasm in the craft. I wasn’t going to be producing 500-page novels or world-altering stanzas. “I’m not a writer”, I would tell myself.
I was being forced to write for a grade and I wasn’t even a “writer”, to begin with. So, in my eyes, there was no way to enjoy writing.
Fast forward to the end of my time at the University of Washington. The longest paper I had written during my four years was 8 pages.
Most students would be extremely annoyed hearing this. To be honest, many students that knew this, were annoyed. But why?
It’s because they weren’t interested in writing. They didn’t want to write but they had to. And knowing that I didn’t have to write much, was an injustice to them.
However, I find this interesting because they would write constantly in the form of texts, Instagram posts, Facebook updates, etc. Why did they find enjoyment in this form of writing but not academically?
How could they have? They weren’t asked what type of writing interested them.
The other students and I did not find it interesting because we were trained to think this way. It is similar to the way a child resents their parents for not letting them be free. We resent our book reports and expository essays because we weren’t allowed to be free in our writing.
“I know some people might think it odd — unworthy even — for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people’s poet so I write for the people.”
— Maya Angelou
Oh, I would have jumped at the chance in 9th grade to write something titled,
“Fahrenheit 451 Review: 9 Reasons That We Can Use a Burning Book to Our Advantage”
It would have been a glorious self-help listicle about how books empower us to utilize the power of knowledge to deal with fires set in life.
Maybe one of my classmates would have liked to write,
“The Catcher in the Rye, A Stye in my Eye”,
a series of poems about how the book’s ideas on superficiality relate to our unrelenting desire as a society to work nonstop — and why we should just close our eyes and sleep.
I know our teachers encouraged us to be our best selves but the current formatting in school just didn’t want us to become writers.
We need to find a way of creating a better system that isn’t just linearly drawn out to make people check off boxes for learning certain literary skills. Let’s brainstorm ways of finding a passion for writing while learning these skills.
You never know what you might get when people are able to express themself creatively with words that are true to who they are.
How I started writing again and how you could too — and I’m not talking about essays
I talk a lot about my current drive for self-improvement and mental clarity. When I started to focus on this journey for myself, I came across the habit of journaling and its countless benefits.
I have read plenty of studies on this habit and I have also seen YouTubers almost always keeping “journaling” in their “Top 10 Healthy Habits for the New Year” videos.
To be completely transparent, I tried journaling my thoughts for a while and it just didn’t work for me. Everyone is unique. If it works for you, then more power to you. Stick with it because it pays off.
Although I didn’t form this particular habit, it is a big reason as to how I came back to writing — no, not like Mark Twain. My own type of writing.
It makes me ask the question, does journaling only prove beneficial when it is practiced by writing in a notebook about our feelings and thoughts? I like to think it’s not so straightforward.
What I came to realize in the past month is that writing self-help articles is like journaling to me. I’m expressing my thoughts in the form of helping others.
“Help me, help you” is a common saying. But for me, “Helping you, helps me” is much more suitable. I’m sitting here, spilling out my ideas on Medium for your benefit, but also mine.
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
— Jack Kerouac
This is me. One day, I did find the right words. They weren’t spilling onto the page because I wrote essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional tragedy or Albert Camus’ existentialist ideas.
I found them because I wanted to thrive in the space of telling stories or the space of building experiences for others. It was simple when I figured it out.
I am enjoying hearing people resonate and connect with my thoughts. I want to make a difference in the lives around me as best I can since there are many that I cannot.
I wasn’t trained to be a “writer” in the traditional sense and in the way that many would view as the proper or correct path. I’m not a “writer” but I will keep writing. I found my own way.
If your head is cluttered with thoughts and ideas, get them on paper or type them out. You never know who you might inspire.
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”
― Sylvia Plath
I would love to hear your thoughts. Upvote and share this article, comment, or send me an email at nicholas@nicholasolds.com so I can learn from you too.
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