My earliest memory of writing was academic. I recall having to write my last book report during the summer going into the 4th or 5th grade. The summer was nearing the end so I was under pressure to finish the summers work. In this particular instance, I recall being in a hurry to finish although the reason is less clear. Perhaps school was starting the next day or it was a condition for me attend a birthday party or play with friends.
My next earliest vivid writing memory is writing a term paper about Napoleon Bonaparte in middle school. I also recall this being hurried to achieve the due date, perhaps the next day even. I recall this being one of the first times I used note cards to record information from books I had borrowed from the library and to organize those notes into a cohesive story. I relied heavily on my mother during this writing assignment to proof read and edit my work.
Surprising, what I cannot seem to recall, is any particular writing assignment in high school or college. I do know that I disliked the research and writing process by this time, and had also developed a critical and perhaps perfectionist expectation of myself which will follow me through life. Although I had thoughts of creating well written pieces, my critical self-view and a lack of understanding of research, writing and grammar likely contributed to my avoiding improvement by way of procrastination until the last moments when an assignment was do.
In my secondary and post-secondary schooling, some of the particular challenges I recall were not having strong spelling skills, struggling with organization and flow, achieving the minimum page requirements regardless if they were short or long assignments and brevity. Looking back, my writing assignments were never a problem with being able to advance academically. I was a consistent B student through high school and a similar level in college.
Fast forward twenty plus years later and my primary writing is in email, presentations and process documents in my business role and to a much lesser extent in text, email and social media in my personal space. My renewed interested in writing, and in particular, improving my own writing is due to three specific reason. The first is to provide knowledge and guidance to my own children who are coming to the age where this skill will be introduced and expected in their own education and a recognition that writing assignments are already causing my oldest son who is in second grade anxiety and a tendency to procrastinate. My second reason is a desire to create a space online, perhaps in a blog or other forum, to share my own knowledge and wisdom with others and to test out my ability to write to the generates a supplemental income for my family. And my final reason, and one that has been on my mind for many years is to record for my children’s future enjoyment, the things they do that bring joy to my heart. And perhaps in my pursuit of these things I can learn to enjoy the creative and gratifying process or writing.
(words: 529, time to write: 90 mins)