When I was a kid, you could not stop me from writing. Stories, poems, songs - it didn't matter. Nobody told me to do it, I just did. Then I hit 7th grade and I stopped. Like so many other things, I wouldn't do it unless it was perfect. On top of that is high school and college where you are trying to put yourself into a mold and compete for that scholarship or that class ranking or with classmates and colleagues, and you stop taking risks that make you vulnerable. You put yourself in a major or a track and that is what you do. We also squash out creativity in our adults unless they have a job that fits into a "creative" label.
Well, you know what? I miss creativity and art. I'm learning it's about the process and not the product. Even if you never share, it's important that you made something. We have a human need to express and create. I painted a very simple wooden cross for my niece's bedroom and at the end I felt like I'd been on a mini vacation. That was a few months ago, but the feeling of painting has stayed with me since - a little tug in the back of my mind going "Hey, do you remember how nice that was?"
I feel it again when I watch So You Think You Can Dance and want to choreograph a full Alvin Ailey production. (But there's not a lot of calls for performances choreographed by public health professors in their mid-30s).
And I've felt it again with writing. Particularly given the bloggersphere coverage of the new book A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson. It's a collection of a stories about a woman's Southern family. I've certainly got those and I've always wanted to write them down but haven't. This was rolling around in the back of my brain when my college roommate called out of the blue and said she wanted to write down her family's stories and she thinks I should too, especially since I'm a writer.
That kind of hit me upside the head. One, that clearly I'm not alone in this thought process and two that she called me a "writer". Despite my lifelong desire to be one, I don't think I live up to that word. I think of the true writers I'm blessed to have in my life and I'm not on their level. Granted, two of them have journalism degrees and write for a living and are some of the greatest I've ever read (literally, despite my bias). But I think there are two key points hiding in this conversation - 1.) Again that you don't have to share everything you create with the whole world because it's about having taken the time to create and maybe to achieve a goal; and 2.) There is going to be some work involved if you want to be good at something, no matter what it is.
So, I'm going to challenge myself to write while learning a bit more about the craft of writing. (I haven't started that yet so don't judge this post ).
I also challenge you to create whatever it is that you create, regardless of your skill level or 9-5 job title. I'm not saying you have to put a price tag on it, hang it in a museum, or share it on all of your social networking accounts. You don't have to have a blog with thousands of followers to truly be a writer (or dancer, photographer, artist), you just have to have the desire and the willingness to take the time.
*Reading these blog posts this morning also helped me along:
http://lysaterkeurst.com/
http://www.chattingatthesky.com/
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