We all have certain things or hobbies that have a deeper meaning to us than most people. Some kids have music, some have sports, and some have a vareity of everything else in between. Over the years, writing became something that was very personal to me. It was something that made me feel special. Most kids I knew in elementary school usually just treated gym class like it was the NBA Finals, picked their noses on the playground, and worried what they were going to have as an after school snack. I was worried about when my next article in Brats Magazine was going to hit the breakfast table (a magazine I handmade about these girls who made fun of me at recreational bowling, you could absolutely guess my parents were NOT the least bit proud of that), and what story I was going to work on at recess or if I was going to sleep that night because I was so invested in what I was doing.
I entered the public school system when I was eight. I previously came from a Catholic K-12 school where I was bullied for being tall and slightly larger than everyone else (they even made a club against me, oh those private school kids). My parents thought that putting me in a different school would put me with kids of all different backgrounds, shapes, sizes, whatever and that I'd be more accepted for my differences rather than taunted for things I couldn't control. It only got worse. I was labeled as the "bad kid" who had to spend recess in the vice principal's office because I "caused problems" among other students and their behavior. I sat by myself at lunch because the kids thought they'd "catch my ugly." When I did go out for recess and try to find a group of girls to play with, they'd all ditch me. I was that girl who had a lot of free time because she was different.
And that I was.
I entered this alternative universe where I was a different person. I once wrote a story that I was a girl who moved across the world with her family and become a pop star almost overnight. I remember that at that point I was happy to be inside most days out of third grade because my notebook was my canvas and I was the only person who could call the shots. Fat or skinny? What color hair? What was my name? My new fictional life had endless possibilities.
For me, writing was more than just a place where I could be anyone I wanted out of pure wonder and imagination. It was my escape. It was something I could turn to when people didn't want to listen (which believe it or not, was very often), and the one thing I loved most about it was that it made me unique.
And it made me quite ... "famous," but to an extent, of course. I got a little too into my writing one day during a penmanship lesson and my teacher took my notebook away from me. She was going to read it to the whole class as a punishment, but she didn't. She sat there and read it for a minute and gave it back to me and told me it was "impressive." I didn't do what I did for compliments because again, writing was personal to me even at an early age. But once word got out that I was a "writer" (even in the third grade), everyone started doing it, but for all the wrong reasons. People started writing books and plays and all these other things. I was a trendsetter. And I didn't like it.
Writing without purpose is just noise.
The point is, you could write anything; a journal, an article, a paper or just a random thought too hard to tell anyone else. There's a whole world of things out there to write about. But the important thing is that you do it despite what anyone else tell you. For me, thats my purpose; that's why I write. I have a purpose. I do write to make noise, but it's a noise that is meant to be heard and not silenced. I've made noise with it since I learned what I could do with pen and paper. My noise was titled a "nuisance" by those that didn't appreciate or understand. But I didn't expect them to, and that is why writing is a very, very personal thing.
The one thing you mustn't forget?
When you write, Be loud.
Very.
Very.
Loud.
