January 26th 2022: O Captain, My Captain

I'm actually in classes that challenge my thinking and writing skills! I started my creative writing class a week ago, but I already love it so much. Yesterday, we were tasked with a 10-minute writing drill where you had to keep writing, no matter if you had something to write about or not. Every sentence had to begin with "I Remember."

Does anyone else have these strange pockets of time from your past that you end up going to in your mind sometimes? Just me? Okay, I'll describe it as best I can.

They're like the places I went to when I was a kid that brought me comfort. The Mississippi River, my childhood library (specifically where the orange couches are), my family's favorite pizzeria, etc.

They come back to me when I feel overwhelmed with everything occurring in my life. They are little havens for me when waves of doubt and uncertainty about the future start to pour in. Anyway, I wrote about one of those "pockets of memory" in my writing. After ten minutes of nothing but writing on paper, my hand was hurting, but I wasn't upset about it at all. I was ecstatic that my writing block was starting to clear out because that's been a thing recently. But no more! I shall be writing purposefully because my goal is to write twice a week, every week. To get into the feeling of routine and give me a deadline to work by.

I'm also starting to have lunch with the people in my writing class. I want to get to know who these writers are. They have goals and ambitions different from mine, whether they plan to get published one day or just like to write for themselves.

"Everything can be poetry," the guy said to me across the table today. I'm reminded that I'm not on this writer's journey alone. I have companions who understand the madness-motivation balance of what it means to be a writer.

One class in particular (okay, it's geology) is a lecture class where all I do is take notes. In Creative Writing, though, it's all about our freedom and what we want to get out of it. The teacher is more like a figurehead, allowing us the choice if we wish to have the bare minimum or absolute everything gained.

I can take words and shape them into any castle, labyrinth, or tower that I want. It all comes from me, and yes, that's stressful, but it's also exhilarating. To have the power to create any character or world best for the particular stories.

As Robert Keating from Dead Poet's Society says, "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life, but poetry, beauty, romance, love--these are what we stay alive for."