Five Hundred Words

I usually do not participate in the many group challenges and activities on social media.    I do not play Farmville on Facebook and I get annoyed when someone gives me a life on Candy Crush.  I immediately delete any "chain letter" like requests for me to forward a message  to nine of my friends or like a post within thirty seconds of viewing it.  I have not filmed myself  dumping a bucket of ice water on my head for charity. But yesterday I made an exception to my self-imposed boycott.  I accepted an online challenge to write at least five hundred words a day for thirty one days. 

            I have always enjoyed writing and have dreamed of being an author since I was in middle school.  In high  school I recall sitting in English class when the teacher announced a writing contest on the topic of literacy.  I remember thinking, "I am going to write an essay and I am going to win."  Well, I did what I set out to do, I wrote the essay and I did win.  I received a certificate in a leather folder at the Biltmore Hotel.  I continued to find success throughout high school and college writing papers and earning high marks

            When I was in college at the University of Rhode Island I took a course about the Civil War.  My professor  was tough, announcing on the first day of class that, "I don't give A's."  Feeling confident to prove him wrong, I wrote an essay on the short novel A Man Without A Country.   On the day he returned the corrected essays to the students he asked to speak to me after class.  He was impressed with my writing and I felt successful.  I worked on a few projects for him during my college career, including one in which I researched and wrote a description of a historic department store in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.  I still have my manuscript, produced an a typewriter on onion skin paper with red margins. 

            My writing repertoire expanded as I took graduate courses.  I wrote papers for my own courses and a few for my friends and boyfriends as well!  While writing papers seemed difficult for others, it was easy for me and I enjoyed it.  When I got my job as a middle school  Social Studies teacher, my writing projects changed.  I no longer wrote research papers, of course, but I did re-write articles to make them easier for my students to understand.  Teaching the elements of writing became part of my job description.  I became skilled at writing recommendations for students, capturing their strengths in a way that produced compliments from my colleagues who read and signed the letter. 

            At the end of the last school year my grade leader announced that she was moving on to another position at another school.  She did not want to leave, but circumstances and contractual rules left her no choice.  All of the teachers in our grade were disappointed and wanted to do something to show our support.  Someone suggested that we write her a letter of recommendation, and I quickly volunteered.  When I was finished writing the document, I passed in along to all fifteen of my colleagues for their signatures.  As they read the letter they nodded with approval, commenting how my words expressed their feelings.

            It was after this experience that I decided to begin writing.  I have a talent and an ability that I need to explore, refine, and improve.  Writing is not easy.  It requires time, energy, and  concentration, all precious commodities of which I have little in the course of my busy life.  But I realize that if I am ever going to write that book that I have always dreamed of writing, I need to start.  I could not just  read about the five hundred word challenge online.  This time, I had to take it.