Write.as Cues

By Penelope Toot

I have never been good at sharing my thoughts on paper. Always scared that I would be misunderstood. I was afraid of being vulnerable to the world. It was easier to go hide in the shadows and go unnoticed.

I wasn't always that way. I can remember the feeling of a finished book and the excitement felt when sharing it with my grandparents as a child. They would tell me to go write them a story and I'd come back with a story book of random collections of all sort of eccentric storylines, like alligators taking a bubble bath or owls putting children to bed. To this day, I can still remember the euphoria of closing a finished book. A book that I created and get to share with my family.

Going into middle school and even throughout high school I forgot how much I enjoyed writing. Writing from the heart is not a forced act. If you feel forced writing your thoughts on paper, pick up a book. Become aspired and let go. I still have a problem with overthinking everything I write down and re-checking it over and over again and end up just deleting the whole thing. Authors like Joseph Campbell, J. Krishnamurti, and Florence Shinn are just a few of those who have influenced me. We just have to write until it makes sense. Be you, don't let others become the master of you. Who cares what someone thinks. I admit that I am grammatically incompetent, but who is anyone to judge. I have a lot of fun in collecting these words. It is both embarrassing and quite hilarious.

A response to the Writing prompt