Remember when you were back in school, and there was always that over-achiever who wrote two pages longer than was required on the teacher's topic "Best homework excuse ever" and then he or she raised his hand and smugly asked, "Is it okay that I wrote, like, two pages longer than I was supposed to?" To which the teacher responded, "Sure, (insert name of suck up here). Why don't you read first today?" And then the kid reads his story, it's pretty much awesome, and he knows it, and the class knows it, and your turn is next, and you really don't want to follow that act because, even though you skipped watching Full House to intently work on it, you know yours just isn't as good as his was?Er... this never happened to you? Have I totally lost you? Oh, well, I'll go ahead and be a clear writer by making my point:
Every member of my adult creative writing class is that annoying over-achiever.
Their writing is Pulitzer Prize winning brilliant. I'm not even just talking about the work they have time to go home, revise, edit, show to friends, or copy straight out of a Mark Twain book. The teacher gave us ten minutes to write to the prompt "My history as a writer." I wrote about A+ term papers, my poetry instructor, and this blog. The others wrote heart-wrenching stories full of angst, metaphors, and words that I had to run home and look up.
One forty-something man read how he had created little, construction paper fantasy stories for his mom about dragons that lived in their basement. When she passed away, he found the box with every story he had every written under her bed. It was so beautiful, my eyes welled with tears.
Just to clarify, those tears were not for the poignancy of his story. They were for how much my own writing sucked in comparison! Just kidding. Kind of.
Verdict: I've been to three classes, and have three more to take. I'm going in with a more positive attitude and will update you guys soon!
Because this challenge is only half way done, I'll also come up with my "Just do it" challenge #7 soon (in the next few days). Stay turned!
Oh, and as a disclaimer, the people in my class are not nerds like the picture at the top. I just included it because it cracked me up!
4 comments:
Ohhh...I know your feeling! There is a book store near me that has writing classes every year. I keep the list by my computer but I'm never brave enough to sign up. So see you are way ahead of all those people who didn't even sign up. Today I had to write a limerick for a going away party(tradition to give limericks to the person leaving). I made the mistake of reading my coworkers' limericks and mine is horrible! Ugh.
Oh my gosh, hilarious! I think going to class as or with adults is so much more challenging - I don't know, it's like they actually CARE or something. (They're paying for the class instead of their parents). Have fun, keep learning! And Full House rocked.
You are too funny! I was a creative writing major, and I remember being in poetry classes that had the opposite problem. Sometimes I would sit there thinking, "Am I missing some irony or did this person really write a 'roses are red' type of poem." that thought always led to, "OMG, what if his poem is really good and I'm so dense I don't see it and maybe my poem is the one that belongs on a greeting card?" Nothing like a creative writing class to make you question your own sense of what makes good literature!
Oh, do I know those types of people! And they bug me.
You're taking this class for you and you alone, correct? If so, screw them! I know, I'm so polite. But it's true! This is a you activity, nobody else. So ha to them!
PS: I'm totally envious of this life list you've got and more so, how proactive you're being with it. It's truly inspiring.
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