I Am a Writer

I Am a Writer

            I am participating in the Writing Contest: You Are A Writer held by Positive Writer at http://positivewriter.com/writing-contest-you-are-a-writer/ and this is my story:

I have been writing since I was just a little girl, although, I never considered myself a writer until this past year. I started with journal writing, then short stories, and now I write poems and songs. I believe that if it wasn't for my early journal writing I wouldn't be writing now. Writing my daily stories about everything that had been happening to me led me to love writing. I knew that one day I could look back on those entries and remember and cherish every forgotten moment of my life. I loved writing my personal life’s story and I still do to this day. I loved writing my own story so much that I wanted to start writing other stories too. I wanted to not only write my real life story, but also the story of all my fantasies and daydreams. I wrote as much of my daydream adventures as I could but I found that I could never finish any of them because I could never bring myself to finish a daydream for sheer fear that it would simply end and I would be left without my hero’s that I had created.

            After I realized I would never give up my hero’s in order to finish the story, I decided to turn to something that would come and go; something I could write down to be able to look at for the rest of my life, or to get it out of my system by putting it on a piece of paper. I turned to poems. I've written dozens of them but have felt like they were nothing but mediocre and not worth letting anybody else see. I kept them to myself for a long time until I started talking to some of my friends and told them that I had been writing. They wanted to see my work but I didn't feel like they were good enough to show anyone else. They persisted and told me that they couldn't be any worse than their own work. I still did not want them to see that part of my soul. It was enough that I told them about my writings. Instead of showing my friends my work, I decided to get unbiased opinions from people who had never met me. I found a website, www.writers-network.com, that allows people to post their work online and get reviews and rating from others on it. Immediately people started critiquing my work. I remember how excited I got when someone read my work and liked it or gave me advice on how to improve. I got on that website every day. Ever since then I have loved sharing my work with others; it has led to deep, heart-felt discussions and drawing closer to others even if just for a moment.

            After I had posted several of my writings online, I still only told people that “I write”, not that I’m a writer. There were a few instances when I would question myself on whether I’m a writer or not and I would almost tell myself that I am, but at the end of the day it was only “I write”. It wasn't until I was on another website, Pinterest.com, that I came across a picture that said “Never say ‘I’m not a runner’. If you run, you are a runner”. That’s when I let myself actually be not only a runner, but a writer as well. I felt like I had just become something; like I hadn't let myself be anything before. Before I was simply testing the waters of life, but not actually swimming in them for fear of failing. But those simple little words that I had probably heard a thousand times before threw me into a mindset that allowed me to let things happen as they may and not always have an excuse to get out of failure. I am a writer. No apologies. No excuses.