Have I ever told you how I started writing? Or anything about my creative journey?
No?
I want to do that now, then.From the time I was about 7 to 16 (I’m guesstimating), my mom was a babysitter. My job, if you can really call it that, was helping to entertain the kids.
That included telling stories.
Even my brother loved my stories and frequently wanted me to tell him a bedtime story.
Eventually, I started writing them down I would also write poems. I was on the school paper and yearbook. But even though I wrote, I didn’t call myself a writer. My writing was mostly just for me at that point.
Don’t get me wrong. I had teachers who encouraged my writing, but those were mostly on school assignments. I didn’t think it was really that big a deal.
Fast-forward to college.
I was waiting for one class to let out so my class could start. I think it was Introduction to Sociology, if I remember correctly. A classmate came and sat by me (on the floor in the hall) to wait, too.
I was reading Writer’s Digest.
Her: “Oh. Are you a writer?”
Me (hesitating): “Yes.”
Her: “What do you write?”
To be totally honest, I don’t remember the rest of our conversation. It was *cough* years ago.
Why do I remember this much of it?
It was the first time I gave myself permiossion to say I was/am a writer.
This is why I say that you are the only person who says you can or can’t be creative. It’s why I say you have to give ourself permisssion.
No one else can do that.
If you hven’t yet given yerself permission to be creative, to be a writer, to be whatever, do that now.
You might have to do it more than once. That’s OK. Just keep doing it until it sticks.
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giving myself permission is something i am learning to do little by little each day
I remember a time after college when you had trouble calling yourself a writer. Glad you took the title back. You are right, we are whatever we give ourselves permission to be.
You’re right. I did go through a time where I didn’t feel like I could or should call myself a writer. I think it was around the time of my computer crash when I lost basically everything I had written at that point.
I am a writer, too. But it still feels weird to say that, so I know what you mean about giving yourself permission. It was neat to hear your origin story.
I almost called it that, but then I thought it’d be better to say I wanted to tell a story. Thanks for commenting. Calling yourself a writer will get less weird the more you do it.