Now I have deadlines

Posted by bookncurls on April 17, 2011 · 2 Comments 

Katelin Austin sent me an email that tipped the scales.  Katelin is a student from my first year teaching at Provo High and the life saver of my once fledgling teaching career.  She kinda caught the wind that I enjoy writing back then.  (Students were writing papers for my ASL class–not normal for a language course.)  These few years later she sent me a link to a repository for writers.  Only catch, I had to publish first to be able to sign up.

So, the years of nudges from all corners to write finally came together in a moment and I knew I had to publish.  So I did and now I have deadlines.  Yikes.  It’s surprising actually, when I finally get down to it, all the experiences, the teaching, the schooling, blogging, plays into what I’m doing now.

My mom has also been a huge support.  She doesn’t say ‘if’ about my writing, she says ‘when’.  The difference is monumental in my perception of self.  It’s slowly undoing the catastrophe that my junior English teacher did when she wrote a, “This will never work” on my creative writing story.  She then wouldn’t recommend me for the invitation-only senior journalism course.

And even though I spent most of my entire life until that point with a notepad in hand writing stories–driving people crazy sometimes, I lost heart at ever writing for fun again.  The courage it has taken me to overcome a silly negligible comment is regrettable.  High school teachers are powerful people.

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