Friday, December 1, 2006

Why I Do This

When I first started blogging this past October, I didn't realize how refreshing this whole experience would be for me. I had been "checking out" the blogs of other people for a few months, but didn't consider that I'd have anything that important to say. I still don't think I've got earth-shattering information for anyone . . . I'm just enjoying the opportunity to write.

When I was in school, creative writing (a.k.a. "English" class) was one of my favorite subjects. I actually did quite well at it, even though I was scared spitless of the teacher. He was a middle-aged British authority figure, as well as the principal of the school and I don't know of a single kid who WASN'T scared of this man. By scared, I mean intimidated. He was very smart but not very approachable. He never won the "Teacher of the Year" award once as far as I know, and he taught at our school for at least 25 years. That being said, he was a very good teacher. He knew the English language inside and out, as well as the French language inside and out. I actually learned a lot from him.

In high school, when we were doing novel studies or engrossing ourselves in one of Shakespeare's plays, we didn't always have time to "write creatively", so I took it upon myself to write my own "stories" in my spare time and share them with my friends. One piece of my writing that I particularly remember is a story entitled, "Gone Fishing" (Carol, do you remember it??). I won't go into the gory details, but it was my perspective on why I was having "trouble" in the "fishing for boys" department. That's all I'm going to reveal. Reading it back to myself now (I still have it), this story has turned out to be quite the comedy. But at the time, it wasn't a comedy. It was my very real life, with all the earth-shattering madness that surrounds the world of a teenage girl trying to get a boy to notice her. Enough said.

I've come to the realization that one of my main reasons for blogging now, 17 years after high school, is to engage myself in my own "Creative Writing" class, with my personal assignment to produce posts that must be written, edited and re-written, scrutinized and analyzed before they are published in cyberspace. Now, I'm not saying that I'm the perfect writer. I'm not. But I do enjoy exercising the part of my brain which allows me to put my thoughts on paper (or in this case, let my fingers do the talking on the keyboard), with "stories" (so-to-speak) about my daily life.

When days go by that I don't blog, I just can't wait to get to my computer so that I relieve my creative writing fetish!

2 comments:

Carol said...

LOL! I am SOOO glad you're blogging, Kim. When I started reading your blog, it reminded me of when you would write stories in high school. (I even thought of 'Gone Fishing' - it's so funny that you brought it up). Keep writing. It's been fun hearing from you again. You do have a knack for creative writing.

By the way, thanks for your post on 'House'. I watched part of the show last Tuesday and really liked it.

Becky said...

I love your blog. That's all I have to say today.