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My Origins of Writing
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At eleven years of age I passed the exams for a super selective school (15/500 girls) and attended my interview. At eleven they wanted to know what I wanted to be when I grew up. Out of the blue I said actress and performer. I’d never given it a thought before that. But out it came. I say this for a reason. Please bear with me.
After the interview my parents asked me what I said and when I told them I was chastised severely for being ridiculous, and why didn’t I say something sensible like teacher. I didn’t want to be a teacher. I didn’t like school or most of the people in them. Why would I want to make that into a career, but I said nothing, accepted their words and buried them deep inside.
My father’s job took me away from that school a year later anyway.
When I was about fifteen and our teachers were asking us what we wanted to be when we grew up, and again out of nowhere I said I would be a writer. I was laughed at by the teacher and most of my class mates.
Again I forgot about my words, buried them deeply and continued to attend school. Mostly with boredom and rather miserably. A year later on I became very good at bunking off school. I didn’t go to university, though I did start at teacher training college and lasted one term. I hated being in schools, The children terrified me and the staff did too.
That changed though. I did other qualifications in practical subjects, catering and food science mainly. Then I was asked by a local college to teach those skills. By then I was married with two sons, but that didn’t last very long either.
Then I met someone who was into poetry and I started to write some terrible doggerel at first, then I wrote something that got his approval. ‘You’ve got something there, he said , and proceeded to ignore me. That didn’t end well either.
But the poetry stuck.
I remained a teacher for all the years my sons were at school, about seventeen years. Then I started to retrain in psychology and learn mindfulness and emotional literacy.
I was also with a new partner who also ridiculed my desire to start a writing course at the local adult ed centre. This…
