Am I a Writer?

My writing career as a child consisted of sidewalk chalk, a Lisa Frank Diary that had a hard shaped lock with a tiny key (that in my mind was unbreakable) so my brothers couldn’t get into it.  I continue to write today, sometime in a journal, sometimes a blog, sometime through poetry but most often it is through photography that I use my creativity and express myself. 

            As a child I loved to write stories, but it always took me so long to decide what I wanted to write about.  When I was in 6th grade my teacher Mrs. Bradshaw had us write all the time.  She gave us a certain topic to write about and then at the end of the year we had to draw illustrations for each of our writing assignments.  We put it together in the layout of a book and she had them sent away and bound in a hard cover.  So I guess I could say I was an author at the age of 12 haha.  When I was about 4 one of my siblings was practicing cursive at the table.  I stood there and watched him for awhile and decided I too new how to write in cursive.  Just to get in some practice I decided to write my name in “cursive” all over the inside of my closet door.  It wasn’t tell I moved when I was 14 that my mom discovered what I did.  I also loved to scrapbook and got into that when I was younger, now its easier to do it digitally.

            I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I don’t write in some way shape or form. I have always loved photography and I think it’s because it can tell a story without words.  I use email, facebook, text messaging, and I dispatch of the USU Police department and have to constantly log the activity of the officer and what calls there on in a program called eforce.  I am not very good at talking when something bothers me, so I have always written out my thoughts and feelings as my way of venting.  Sometime its writing a letter, or times its just random thoughts all over a page, and sometimes writing a poem helps me sort out my thoughts.  In my sophomore English class we did a big unit on poetry so that was probably my favorite writing assignment I’ve had to do. 

            I think that its important to give students a chance to express themselves in a way that they feel most comfortable.  Sometimes its good for them to branch out, but when it comes to writing I would like to give my students the opportunity to pick the type of writing they’d like to use to express a certain topic.