November 5th: A talent you have.
Writing.
I've always loved writing. Growing up I wrote poems and a lot of stories that began with the words, it was a dark and stormy night, which my mom always read out loud at the dinner table. In college, it took me about two months to realize I should change my major from an education one to a writing one. When I made the switch, the chair of the English department e-mailed me and said. "Welcome home." I cried when I read that because it felt true.
Writing has always felt like home to me. I love the outlet it provides, love the feeling of creating something new. I love the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night with a thought that will spend the next few hours rolling around my brain, turning itself into a story. I love stringing words together and making them somehow evoke emotion from the page. There are few things that excite me more than having a cup of coffee, a pen, and a blank notebook.
I had to write a paper once describe why I wanted to be a writer. It, like this post, was surprisingly hard to explain for someone who claims to love writing so much. I just found that paper and I think the closing paragraph of it sums up how I feel:
"It's like my soul is dancing. When I write, I'm free. Not tied down by anything else, just free. Something clicks right into the place it was meant to, my soul starts dancing in some other place--with the characters and words I've created, maybe--and I experience moments of true joy, all because I am doing what I was created to do. If nothing else ever comes of my writing, I will still write, because that feeling of freedom and and rightness and joy is enough for me. It always will be."
