There was a time where I did not like writing. I'm touching on this because I actually had another highschool (one in an unlimited series) dream last night. In fact, I remember distinctly throughout most of my educational career, I hated it. It required looking up facts to regurgitate something I supposedly learned. There was an exception to this though. I had a class called "American Civ" which basically was a combination of english and history during eleventh grade and it was taught by two teachers that I thought were pretty innovative for their time and I respect very much to this day. They had a daily exercise of giving us fifteen minutes out of our 2 hour class to just write. What about? Basically whatever was on our minds. Sometimes they'd give us a subject and just say go, but what was refreshing was they wanted us to come up with something original and unique. They called them "think writings."

I didn't get it initially. I was used to the hard and fast rules of what you need to do when writing. What do you mean I don't have to have an opening paragraph followed by supportive ones and concluding with a summary? It was too much. I was used to journaling but looking at my old journals, that basically boiled down to a recount of what happened that day or stupid friend drama. Never was it about what kind of opinion I had on a situation, event, or a person. But I slowly got it, and I guess that's why I felt motivated later in life to jot down what's on my mind. So thanks Mr. Mack & Ms. Barber, you definitely made an impression.