Laughable #sol18

If you’re not familiar with teachwrite.org or the #DWHabit word of the day, I highly recommend checking this out.  Today’s word is laughable and I decided to use it for my post today.

When I read today’s word, I was immediately transported back to the high school class that convinced me for a long time that my dream of being a writer was laughable.  That one class diminished years of positive experiences as a writer.  From the time I first put pencil to paper until that one class, I was a writer.  I filled notebook after notebook with stories and ideas and thoughts.  I enjoyed any opportunity to use my imagination to create stories.  I thrived in classrooms that provided so many options for writing.  My family, my teachers, and my closest friends encouraged me.  I remember one of my best friends in middle school proudly proclaiming that I’d written a book (and I wonder where that “book” is now).  But that all changed during one class in high school.  I wasn’t encouraged and the words that I put on paper weren’t appreciated or even really acknowledged.  The things that I wanted to write about were treated as unimportant.  While in hindsight, I cringe at some of my pieces of writing, I also realize that’s part of the process of being a writer.  They didn’t have to love what I wrote, but they didn’t need to make me feel inferior either.

It took a long time for me to gather my courage and write again.  I missed out on years of writing because of that one class.  I missed out on so many opportunities because I allowed someone else dictate whether or not I was a writer.  I allowed someone else to make me feel as though my words didn’t matter.

Now, instead of thinking that it’s laughable that I’m a writer, I own being a writer.  My words and my voice are important.  Being a writer is an essential part of who I am and I won’t forget that.