I was not fond of Writing, until Medium

Now I have the freedom to write my thoughts authentically as it comes to my mind

Photo by Angelina Litvin on Unsplash

I did not grow up with a love for writing.

Since the beginning of my earliest experiences in elementary school, writing was a task that I along with my other peers in school were forced to do to prepare us to perform well on our state's standardized writing assessments.

I describe this type of writing I learned as "clone writing".

It went something like this — a prompt statement was provided to be read first and afterward we, the students, proceeded to compose a 5-paragraph styled essay response with these sections:

• introduction 📝 (hook, thesis statement, 3 main points)
• body paragraph 1 📝 (topic sentence or main point #1, supporting sentences)
• body paragraph 2 📝 (topic sentence or main point #2, supporting sentences)
• body paragraph 3 📝 (topic sentence or main point #3, supporting sentences)
• conclusion 📝 (restate thesis, summarize 3 main points, closing final statement)

“Don’t forget to use your catalog of transition words to begin each of your body and conclusion paragraphs, and remember a paragraph contains at least 5 sentences”.

- My teacher’s voice rehearsed in my mind now playing in my thoughts during the exam proctoring

I followed this formula because this was impressed upon us about “what successful writing is”.

I did not like it.

But also received top marks ✔️ for sticking to this blueprint.

So as unexciting as it was, I produced those 5 paragraphs.

Thinking about the human readers who reviewed all of the students’ tests in the state, I could not be them. I would absolutely be bored reading a series of similarly formatted writings.

I guess since that is what they expected to read, it could have made their scale grading — does not meet expectations, meet expectations, and exceed expectations per criteria easier to do. But still.

I remember these writing assessments first happened in 3rd grade, then 5th, and lastly, in 8th grade (I was waived from my state's high school graduation test, so I skipped out of this final time in junior year that I would have been assessed, yay!).

Then in college, my academic writing was a continuation of high school writing except there were longer essays and research papers assigned. I had similar feelings even though there was some flexibility in writing choice.

An aside exception was I did like writing my reflection papers. Posting in the online discussion board, and my creative writing class was an amazing experience in college!

If I was not writing for state exams or school assignments I was not writing. My attitude toward writing was developed from the constant repetition of practicing this formal, structured, and rigid format of school-based writing.

Leisure writing in the form of free expression was nowhere in my thoughts during that time. But through joining the poetry club during my senior year of high school, which I did not see coming, I had begun writing my own poems after getting through my self disbelief that I cannot write poems.

So it is laughable that as I was exploring the content creation formats (podcast, video, blogging) post-college, I decided to give blogging a go, ironically. Guess those many years of scholastic writing did pay off and have an advantage, as I feel the most comfortable writing because along the way I strengthened it.

Medium has been my first home to write outside of school requirements, to write publicly on the internet, and to write to share encouragement and learnings. In discovering Medium I found an appreciation for written expression because:

• I am not prescribed what I have to write about.
• I have complete choice over what I write.

I can write about things that I find meaningful, am learning from, and whatever else rumbles around inside my head.

In this way, I feel I am writing, on my own time and purpose now.

Thanks for reading from the perspective of a young woman's journey to writing :)