My Identity

   I discovered my love for writing when I was in forth grade. With writing I was able to gain the confidence I never knew I had and be able to say what I wished I could've said. I was given the liberty to express my thoughts on paper when we were assigned journal assignments during that year. The teacher graded on the substance of our ideas, not the basic rules most teachers zoom in on. There have only been two other instances where I have been given that freedom. When I was in eleventh grade and presently in my English 95 class. As a disgruntled junior in high school, I had lost a lot of faith in writing. The teachers weren't passionate about inspiring the students or giving them the will to write freely. But I was assigned to a teacher who broke that mundane mold. He inspired me to write and never cease that dream. I was also given the option to transfer to an AP English class, but I refused. I knew I wouldn't be given the same freedom in that class. And I will never regret it. I probably wrote the best essays I was capable of and improved significantly as a writer. But three years passed until I could receive the same inspiration and freedom to write and learn to improve as a writer. This happened when I entered my English 95 class and I was asked to explain my identity as a writer.

   When I am given the freedom to write what I want and how I want to, my motivators are largely intrinsic. I write to feel better and express myself. A grade should be the least of my worries because writing exists to not only to inspire others, but most importantly ourselves. I always try my hardest to hand in an essay that not only reflects the effort but the sincerity of my ideas. I don't just write to meet each guideline in an assignment. My ideas aren't watered down to meet the requirements. Instead I always try to give a piece of me in each writing. I want my voice to be heard and writing has always been the only form that allows me to get an idea across. So it's the truth when I say that writing does give me a sense of purpose because you have freedom to write whatever you want to and there's always an opportunity to improve. That's the beauty of writing. I know there's always room for improvement.If you're bad at something, most of the time you'll convince yourself that you will never get better. But writing allows you to make mistakes and always lets you jump right back into it and learn from those errors. And I believe that I am an imperfect writer that's willing to try and learn from my literary mistakes. 

   In the next four years, or even beyond that, I hope to grow as a writer and always stand firmly in my beliefs towards writing. Writing shouldn't be a chore or a ticket to the next class, or job, or step. Instead I want writing to always be a passion and something I can always improve on. I want to inspire others through my work and I'm fully aware that there is inspiration everywhere, especially inside ourselves. My identity as a writer has always mirrored what stage of my life I'm in. I'm continually growing as a writer but also as a person. The magic of writing is that we can always go back and relate to past work and see how much we learned or didn't learn. It's overwhelmingly powerful how much writing has helped me. I owe a great deal of thanks to writing and will never give up on my dream to one day inspire others to write. In the end, the most accurate statement that can sum up my attitude towards writing is that is absolutely saved my life.