To begin, I would have to admit that my perception of creative writing has definitely changed versus the first day of class. To be honest, I never really enjoyed this genre of writing. I do like writing, though. I always found myself writing the best when I was able to follow a prompt typically for persuasive writing or an informative essay. Basically, anything that school would academically prepare you for. I have not had a creative writing class since middle school so this class was a little out of my element. I soon realized that creative writing was not as bad as I thought it would be. I almost thought that something like writing for ten minutes a day would be useless but I soon began to see a difference in how easily inspiration would come to me. Even if my writing was not very organized or simply weird, I was able to get something down on paper to edit and play with. After all, this is part of the writing process.
I also have turned the small assignment of trying to creatively write for ten minutes a day into a hobby now! I have a job at a college prep program mentoring first generation college students. Our program is called TRIO Upward Bound and I am an alumnus (Class of 2019). I work there now as a Tutor-Counselor helping kids with homework, being a social/emotional support, and more. We run after school help and Saturday sessions in the fall and spring semesters and summer programs when they’re out of school. Anyway, we tend to journal with our kids for about ten minutes every Saturday. I found that this was the most relaxing, productive way for me to write. Of course the prompts help stimulate my mind but I feel like I can do more on those days. So, I think as a new form of self-care, I will be doing creative writing in my journal from now on. A quiet setting with relaxing music is probably the best environment for me. I find even calling it “journaling” instead of creative writing is also less intimidating for me.
So, overall, the whole idea of creative writing was never really something I used to be very interested in but I am thankful that I took this class and now understand the value in it better. This semester, I also took an Intro to American Writing course along with this one. I have to say, I enjoyed this class a lot more. It is ironic because I typically prefer expository writing over free writing. However, I felt like I had a different experience with this class that allowed me to see creative writing a little differently. I also really liked the Intro to American Writing course, too. But if I had to pick, this class made me want to write a lot more than the other. I’m grateful I was able to have this experience and I can’t wait to see where my creative pen takes me next.