Week # 2: Vulnerability and Writing

I feel that my writing ability is above the average American adult.  I am particularly proud of my ability to craft an email that conveys both my message and my tone accurately.  We all have our talents right? However, when I compare myself to some of my peers with my same level education, I still feel a bit inadequate.  I enjoy writing and I feel that I am able to get my thoughts on the page with relative ease.  I think a trick with writing is to know that there is always room for improvement and not take your "areas of growth" personally.

I am not as self conscious about the flaws, my tendency to misspell words, or favoring certain words or phrases, until I am reluctantly forced to share my writing with my peers or students for that matter.  Part of the problem is that writing hits a sore spot for me.

I am a terrible speller.  I have vivid memories of failing pre-spelling tests in elementary school, my peers telling me I was dumb, coming home crying, and then my mom drilling me for hours on the week's spelling words.  I would ace the spelling test on Friday and then later forget the spelling of the words.  My spelling has improved significantly since then, but it will always be a weak point.  I will always get a little extra anxious about my spelling when I write something on the whiteboard, but I will endure. 

I share this because everyone has their "thing" that is a weak point and source of insecurity.  Unfortunately, for a lot of people it has to do with public speaking or writing.  The harsh truth is that the only way you are going to get better at anything is by just going for it and trying your best to ignore your own insecurities. I know how scary it was for me to decide that I wanted to be "good" at English even though it did not match my strengths.  Every time I gave my high school teachers one of my essays I felt so exposed and afraid.  Besides being stubborn, what helped me was to know that my sophomore honors English teacher was a terrible speller too.  He was so confident about his own intelligence, writing, and ability to communicate, that it made me feel that there was hope for me to improve my writing as well. We all have areas to improve and the truth is there is no perfect writer.  All writers work on improving their craft.  It is up to us to only compare ourselves to ourselves.

(Word Count: 436)