Writing History

If you wanted to know my writing history, I’d say that on the walls of my crib was probably written in crayon the inscription “6 more years before I can finally write with a pencil instead of this damn crayon!” Writing has been my passion for as long as I can remember. In 4th grade, I even loved the smell of fresh, blank R.U.S.D. (Richmond Unified School District) paper as it slid across my desk full of promise and possibilities. I’d grab at least three sheets and proceed to fill both sides with an epic tale of action and adventure right off the top of my head then proudly turn in the longest story in the class yet again which was my "claim to fame". My 4th grade teacher would highlight sentences such as the one I just wrote and label them “run-on”. But I, both then and now, defiantly refused to change a single word. I’d write and write until my pencil went dull; couldn’t stop to sharpen it for fear that I may loose my train of thought (so I’d just push harder).

My worst writing experience was in 6th grade. I created my master piece; a 5 page story called “Land of No Return”. My teacher, Ms. Butcher picked the story apart, pointing out my grammatical errors and inconsistencies then inserted corrections to the point where I barely recognized the story (the irony in her name was blindly obvious to 12 year old Gerard). The painful part was, I let her (I still have the piece-of-crap story which was once my greatest achievement). I didn’t write much for years after that. Finally, my Writing teachers at Laney College and Contra Costa College both swore I had a gift and that’s what got my pencil movin’ again.

Today, my life is so full there’s hardly time to breathe let alone write. However, now I’ve found a digital piece of paper which is always blank, always full of promise and has endless possibilities; plus there's an audience much larger than my 4th grade classroom. My pencil is movin’.