I have longed for 75% of my life to become the author of a published book. I scribbled on papers, and pretended to be an editor when my sisters would write "books".
I've walked through different seasons of this writing life.
My parents, aka the real MVPs in the story of Moriah the author, dealt with my young, ornery self. During elementary school, I would refuse to write. If it could not be perfect, I didn't want anything to do with writing. Negative self-talk convinced that I had nothing worth saying. And the crippling anxiety that ensued left me crying at the dining room table for hours, not a single word written on the blank paper. My saint of a mother was patient and encouraging but grew impatient when hours after reciting every detail of a recently read book, I still refused to touch the book report. After dealing far too frequently with incidents of this kind my writing assignments were passed off to my father, giving him the duty of supervising my tearful refusal to write.
My daddy, a mild-mannered man who also enjoys creative writing, would slowly and painstakingly outline every paper and report with me. These outlines forced me to start writing words onto the blank paper. No longer blank, the paper didn't seem nearly as terrifying. The more often I was forced to write, the more I enjoyed it, or would at least complete the assignments that were required of me.
I'm immensely grateful to my parents for sticking out that rough patch in my life. Like I said, you're the real MVPs.
In high school, I wrote more purely because I wanted to, and also because I thought that my mind would explode if I did not write. Journaling and writing poetry was cathartic in my quickly transitioning life. It was my senior year, my friendships were changing, my dad was deployed, and I had no idea what my future looked like. Journaling gave me the ability to unload my thoughts, and then analyze what the tangled web of words meant in the context of my life.
College put a damper on my writing 'career' because I hardly had free time. If I wrote, it was one of my many required papers. I rarely made time to put pen to paper. The less time I spent writing, the harder it became to pick up a pen or open a new blog post. The beginning of my third year of college finally changed this. My summer was a roller coaster of exciting moments, and deep lows. I found myself with a great amount of free time on my hands. I made the effort to spend hours with God, seeking to know him more deeply. All of this growing and writing finally started me back on the track of writing.
I blogged more frequently and some time later heard about Odyssey from my friend and co-worker Sadie Penn. This is my seventh article and I recently became the Editor-in-Chief of the Grace College community. As time has progressed I have been more invested in my writing, even when it is difficult to make the time to sit down. Nothing worth having is easy to get.
Today I participated in one of the most inspiring webinars that have ever been taught. Next week I'll go more in-depth into why this was so encouraging to me, and what that looks like for the future of my writing.
