Writing About Writing

Today in my challenge to write 500 Words a day for the months of January, Jeff Goins challenged us to write about writing.  I've been a bit protective about what I post on this site, but I decided that it was time to relax about that and just get busy with writing.  I know that this blog will morph as my healing continues and my focus changes.

As long as I can remember, I've enjoyed writing.  In elementary school we had to learn cursive and for some reason, it was not as enjoyable for me to write in those years.  Being an over achieving student, I continued to write as I was asked to write.  Then in high school I discovered journaling.  In my early teens I began to struggle with my sexual identity.  Even though I didn't even understand what homosexuality was, I knew I was different than other kids my age.  My journey through the nuances of sexuality will certainly be a topic for future postings.  But, back to writing about writing.  I began to fill journals with my thoughts, my feelings, my experiences and it seemed to give me an outlet.  I had not yet learned to communicate with others about what was going on inside, so this is where I worked it out.

I moved to a new high school for my senior year (oh yeah, another topic I should discuss one day) and I had a class that changed how I viewed writing.  The teacher challenged us to answer specific questions and enter our responses in a weekly journal.  She would ask us questions about how we felt about religious topics, about political issues and abstract beliefs.  One of her critiques for me was that I was good at "regurgitating what I had been taught but I had not yet owned my personal beliefs."  I took great offense to this originally, but in the years that would follow I would realize that she was right.

In college, I was a biology major ( ask me if I've ever done anything with that degree?) and I did a lot of technical documentation and report based writing.  This built my professional writing skills.  However, my journal entries where finally becoming my own thoughts and not just discussions of what others had told me was right or true.  I was developing my own thoughts.  Again, writing was helping me to work it out.

In the years that followed college, I would experience a crisis of faith.  As I worked it out, I was now questioning almost everything that I had been taught in my first 21 years.  The next four years would be the most tumultuous, promiscious years of my life.  My writing became more and more intense.  In the early years of my career as a Flight Attendant I would have seveeral days off in a row.  I would lay outside enjoying the warm summer days and write for hours on end.  Many of these journals still follow me from city to city after 23 years.  Have a re-read them.  You bet I have!  Am I glad I'm not still in the same place.  You know it!  Do I still have some of the same issues that I did a quarter century ago?  You know I do!

There is much more I could say but I am sure by now you've heard enough for today.  I'll finish by jumping to writing today. I work a full time job in Learning & Development for a large accounting firm.  I write most every day for work, but writing for pleasure and to tell my story still excites me.  I'm learning that we are more alike than we are different.  I write to connect with others to share the journey.  And in some overarching