The Write Path

My earliest memory of writing was scribbling on paper while my mom wrote out her bills and balanced her checkbook. I remember saying, “Mommy, look, I’m writing cursive!” I also remember writing my name with pen on my neighbor’s house and denying that I did it. I hid while he yelled at me, but he knew I could hear him.

Thanks to my parents need for a Sunday nap, I kept journals from a young age. In second grade, my teacher offered an after-school workshop series to teach us how to write poetry. I have loved writing poetry ever since. I also loved that teacher so much that I wrote a poem about her that was published in our local paper. The poem was called, “Mrs. Glover, We All Love Her.” That is really the only formal training in creative writing that I have had.

The only truly useful piece of academic information I learned in high school was how to write a research paper. That too was an extra credit tutorial, believe it or not! I greatly admired the teacher who gave me that assignment, because she always used the correct words and never spoke extra “ums” or “ahs.” She was very kind and thoughtful with her words, and that made them very powerful.

I have always enjoyed letter writing, and I have kept just about every love-note I have ever received from family, friends, and boyfriends. I’m sentimental that way. I think the written word can be a balm, especially little notes of thanks or encouragement that you can hold in your hand and keep with you always.

In college, I studied TV journalism, which is vastly different from other forms of writing, but closer to how people actually talk. My career/passion has been interviewing others and telling their stories. There are lots of good stories out there, and I enjoy giving them a voice.

Now that I am no longer working in television, I spend my free time writing these wonderful stories for magazines. I have also written a family newsletter every month now for the last four years. My background in journalism has lead me down a new exciting path in life—family history research!

I would not claim to be particularly skilled at writing, but I have really enjoyed this gift/interest and have found ways to develop it and to let it enrich my life. Writing has taken me places I never would have gone. I guess you could say that I’ve come a long way from the days of scribbling on my neighbor’s house, something I’m sure my neighbor is also very happy about!