How I started writing

Before I started writing poetry, I wrote short prose and the beginner essay pieces and would keep them in a large journal that I got on sale at Waldenbooks in our mall. I even remember when I got it: a day that I ran into my best friend and unknown-to-him crush at said bookstore. Since then, (at the time) what I mostly wrote were the requisite young unrequited love pieces that young girls write but keep hidden away in a diary. I think I only showed them to best friend since fifth grade, Heidi.

Well one day when I was older and in college I was a member of a literary organization at school. Our group president was what I would have called a poet. I decided to try my hand at the form, having never had any real practice at it. And I wrote the longest poem (albeit the only poem) I had ever written. I guess what I was really writing was an essay (because that's all I knew how to write) poem. :P So I showed my new attempt to our group president who in no uncertain words told me to keep writing what I knew ... essays and prose. And instead of a valuable critique, I was criticized. So, I never wrote another poem again ... until years later when I found myself in an advanced creative writing classes as  a graduated journalism major because I was told I needed the hours to teach.

And having already been told by someone I looked up to that I pretty much sucked at poetry, I was afraid to even try. But I had to write. And gratefully I wound up with a very understanding professor who would later become my mentor. And since I was trying to get hat group president's voice out of my head, I started writing the shortest poems possible. But with her guidance and helping me hone the craft, I not only developed a love of poetry, but of service learning as well and started my own community writing group that is now four years strong.

Don't get me wrong. Half the time I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing as writing is hard work that at times take both sweat and tears. But now I have the confidence to try and make mistakes. Not to mention a very supportive writing and poetry community (read: family) to keep me going when I feel like giving up.

Now I find myself writing this post because I can't sleep and instead of writing in secret in a journal, I share my experiences and the difficulty in writing what is hardest at times... truth.