Love Henrietta’s legal declaration under oath…. Now that is commitment… and back when an oath was significant. :-)
I had been trying to help my daughter with her school work. She was having a few challenges and i thought back to how fortunate I might have been if someone had given me some guidance. My parents were quite laissez faire, which had its good and bad influences.
I began to harken back to my experiences in school. Which dragged up some stuff! I had an epiphany at my high school graduation. Many of my friends were collecting scholarships and awards and I was in the audience impatient for the damned ceremony to be over so I could start the evening of frivolity.
It was like a pan hit me on the head. What have I been doing? These people aren’t that brilliant, I can do that. So I made an oath ( like Henrietta, without the legal ramifications) to myself that I would figure out how to get good grades in college. In fact I aimed for straight A’s. And to make a painfully long story less long, I graduated at the top of my class.
So I wanted to share what I’d learned with my daughter. I began to write down notes. Ultimately as my two younger kids grew I decided to publish it as a how-to book. They gained the most benefit and certainly gave me legitimacy.
It’s not a best seller, but it’s full of my insights and short cuts to getting top grades and may be found on Amazon. So when that was published, I claimed I was a writer.
But, of course I’d rather be the brooding, eccentric type who writes meaningful fiction that makes people gasp at my sagacity and insight into life. …. One can dream :-)
I had jury duty and was about to be impaneled when the judge asked us one by one to rise and answer a few questions. When it was my turn, he asked what I did and, for the first time in public, I said "I'm a writer." He asked what kind, and I said "A good one?" So, right then and there, I kind of made it legal, under oath :-)
I love "a good one!" I just LOL'd (tho' it's true!). This ties into a longer article I plan to write on how resistant so many of us to calling ourselves writers and claiming it, as you did!
Love Henrietta’s legal declaration under oath…. Now that is commitment… and back when an oath was significant. :-)
I had been trying to help my daughter with her school work. She was having a few challenges and i thought back to how fortunate I might have been if someone had given me some guidance. My parents were quite laissez faire, which had its good and bad influences.
I began to harken back to my experiences in school. Which dragged up some stuff! I had an epiphany at my high school graduation. Many of my friends were collecting scholarships and awards and I was in the audience impatient for the damned ceremony to be over so I could start the evening of frivolity.
It was like a pan hit me on the head. What have I been doing? These people aren’t that brilliant, I can do that. So I made an oath ( like Henrietta, without the legal ramifications) to myself that I would figure out how to get good grades in college. In fact I aimed for straight A’s. And to make a painfully long story less long, I graduated at the top of my class.
So I wanted to share what I’d learned with my daughter. I began to write down notes. Ultimately as my two younger kids grew I decided to publish it as a how-to book. They gained the most benefit and certainly gave me legitimacy.
It’s not a best seller, but it’s full of my insights and short cuts to getting top grades and may be found on Amazon. So when that was published, I claimed I was a writer.
But, of course I’d rather be the brooding, eccentric type who writes meaningful fiction that makes people gasp at my sagacity and insight into life. …. One can dream :-)
It's interesting how so many writers (and creative people, generally) who are so good at one thing long to be good at something else instead or in addition. It's like we can never be satisfied! I think the striving's good, but I hope we can all feel proud of our accomplishments in writing, too. Here's Brian's book - it's full of fantastic advice and so well written: https://www.amazon.com/10-Secrets-Straight-As-Grades/dp/0692576363/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2S1VRDKXZCG0O&keywords=Brian+Atchison&qid=1656339526&sprefix=brian+atchison%2Caps%2C69&sr=8-2
Thank you for this, Meta!
I had jury duty and was about to be impaneled when the judge asked us one by one to rise and answer a few questions. When it was my turn, he asked what I did and, for the first time in public, I said "I'm a writer." He asked what kind, and I said "A good one?" So, right then and there, I kind of made it legal, under oath :-)
I love "a good one!" I just LOL'd (tho' it's true!). This ties into a longer article I plan to write on how resistant so many of us to calling ourselves writers and claiming it, as you did!