(The Blog Formerly Known as "Countdown to 30" and "30 is the New Twenty")

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Me Write Pretty One Day

The other day I was reflecting back on my early 20's and I realized that somewhere between graduating from college and loosing my job, I lost my love of writing. This had never occurred to me before. It was pretty shocking to work through this. I've been an avid reader and writer since I was little. I was always writing. How do you wrap your finger around something like this? Even in college, I was actively writing. I was one of the "weird" ones who enjoyed writing papers. I even helped my friends write papers. I kept a journal and I freelanced for my college newspaper. I loved creative writing classes and wished I had majored in creative writing instead of English Literature. My senior paper was a screenplay about a bunch of teens who get trapped in a grocery store during a blizzard. The only logical explanation I can come to is my crazy draw to the business world. I loved suits. I wanted to find my spot in corporate America and I somehow decided that the account side of Advertising was where I wanted to be. My love of suits mixed with my Dad's practicality pushed me towards the business world. I suppressed my creative side. I recall my super senior year of college (yes, it took me five years to graduate), a professor asked me what my plans were after college. I said I was going to work in Advertising. She told me that I really should pursue writing. I, of course, didn't listen. I was a naive 22 year old, who thought Advertising was the way to go...the way to make tons and tons of money. That was the beginning of my loss of my love of writing. Looking back, this was the time that my love of writing, should've gotten me through my eight months of unemployment and my decision to go back to school to get an MA in Education. It didn't. I was too hell-bent on finding a job and spending as little money as possible. I was in survival mode.

Four years later, I somehow managed to find my passion for writing. I was back in school and working in retail, where I witnessed several scenes a day that were too ridiculous to not share with others. I was 26 years old working at a big box retailer with a bunch of old woman, who really didn't understand me, and I certainly didn't understand them. This situation practically screamed, "write about me!" With the encouragement of a friend, I decided that a screenplay about retail would be the best thing to write about. That's when my passion for writing returned and it hasn't left. I have the same joy and excitement that I had as a 17 year old co-editor of my school newspaper. In fact, I think the passion is stronger. The past year, I've really decided that writing is what I want to do with my life. I have to have some sort of writing outlet or I go nuts.

Writing truly is what saves me. It's what makes me happy. It's the one thing that I am meant to do.

2 comments:

The Cheap Chick said...

I'm proud that you found your passion early(er) on in life. It took me until I was in my mid-thirties to find out what I was meant to do.

Michelle said...

Awww...thanks! At least you found your passion. So many people never find it.