Creative Writing Forever

There is no doubt that I love to write, it is my dream to become a feature writer, or a contributing writer. I would love to see my stories in magazines. Before I made the decision to major in English, I thought that I should not go for an English major because I believed that I should only go for the things I am good at, I am not a poetry expert, nor expert in understanding a text right away, I am not a proofreader; so I used to think that writing is not going to get me anywhere. But that is completely untrue. I remember how in one of my poetry courses, my professor wrote down quotes from other writers and what they had to say about writing. One author said “Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds.” I realized that there is no such thing as writing an article in two or five minutes; writing requires you to be patient, to clear your thoughts, to sometimes do research. Even when having passion for something you write about, you still need to take your time. I remember that in my Latin X literature course we read a book called I am not your perfect mexican daughter and already just by taking a look at the title I knew what I would be reading about. My initial thoughts before reading it were that I would be reading about a girl who does not want to follow tradition, a girl who feels misunderstood by her family. I really liked reading the story, and I felt that I connected with the protagonist (Julia) in the story. Like the protagonist, I am also from Chicago and I used to live in apartments that were infested with roaches; and living like that was the just the worst. Another way I felt connected to her was in how she did not focus on being perfect, she wanted to be herself and not get judged for it. Reading this story made me think of my boyfriend’s family because they do tend to think that a woman needs to do certain things to be considered a woman. So, what does all this have to do with me majoring in English? Well, for me, my journey in this pathway has helped me to see that I do not need to be perfect to become a writer; this is not to say I can just write sloppily, but it is perfectly okay to struggle the first couple times. When I joined the Chronicle, an online magazine at North Central College, instead of getting told I would no longer write because I lacked skills like SEO or grammar, the editors were kind enough to explain to me how I can improve my articles. Joining The Chronicle became one of the turning points for me in continuing my major in English; because of The Chronicle, I finally knew exactly what I wanted to do with my major in English, which is to become a feature writer for a magazine. Despite my boyfriend’s family thinking that a major only matters if I make a lot of money and that they see it as a waste of time for me to be writing, I feel that writing is my vocation, and I cannot just quit just because I may fail a couple times, and if there is something that I learned while majoring in English is that even though it can sometimes be annoying, or stressful, I feel that every other major is like that; we can not like certain things about our majors and at the same time also love it. I really did not want to take a course on British Literature, however I did enjoy some of the texts; I liked reading Modern Fiction by Virginia Woolf. In Modern Fiction Virginia Woolf wants writers to write what they feel in their hearts, not write for the pleasure of others. I have been following Woolf’s advice because I want to not feel limited in my major. I think that a major should allow you to grow, it should not suffocate you and to me being an English Major means being able to explore different ideas, and being open to different point of views. Reading Modern Fiction, I would consider it to be another turning point because the essay helped me to understand that I do not have to follow a specific method to become successful in my major, I should not feel controlled as an English major but instead feel free, I should feel free to write what comes to my mind and not write what others would like to read because if I write for the pleasure of everybody else, it just feels like I am not being my own person in something that I want to do for the rest of my life.

Looking back at my high school years, I noticed how when I was going into my classes I wasn’t excited about Biology, Chemistry, or economics. I participated a lot in the readings we did in my English classes. I was so proud of myself for writing a paper on why Gatsby was not truly great, or who was the true mockingbird from To Kill a Mockingbird. I enjoyed reading Animal Farm, and The Crucible. I feel that my love for being in these English courses also became a turning point for me because they sparked a joy in me and none of the other classes did that for me. I enjoyed discussing my viewpoints on certain characters and learning about how symbolism is shown in stories. There is a lot of beauty in literature and I was so happy to see that again at North Central. I remember reading the book M.Butterfly by David Henry Hwang and I was just amazed that the main character thought he was with a woman this whole time when it was a man, I think that stories that have endings that are not fairytales help me and other readers become aware of what to expect in the real world, and I just love stories that have unexpected plots or endings. The literature books that I read in high school and in North Central are an inspiration to me because they make me think about what I could write about for a feature article, for example when I read 1984 I thought about writing an article on how in the present day, society would react towards a totalitarian government, or how maybe the people with high power will not suffer under a totalitarian government. I feel that having a major that makes you want to discover more demonstrates you are on the right path. I do not have passion for mathematics or engineering, but with my English major I look forward to writing poetry, writing an essay on a book or short story that I read, I love getting inspiration on what my next article can be about.

Being an English major for me has meant going through ups and downs, it has meant getting feedback on how to improve my writing. Most importantly, being an English Major does not mean I have it so simple. There are certain skills needed in order to understand a text, you have to think about what you want to write on paper and that does not come easily. I love that an English major can give me numerous options in careers. I could be part of a non-profit organization, be a technical writer, or work for a creative writing magazine. I cannot lie and say I am not afraid of what will happen after I graduate. Being an English Major also comes with worries. I worry about not being able to find a stable job that is connected to my major. I want to feel that it is all worth it and not get told that I wasted my time attending college only to work in a place I don’t want to work at. For my Intro to Creative Writing course, I had to get a book called 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration. Every class, our professor assigns us a prompt from the book and I just love being able to come up with something by following what the prompt says. One of the prompts we did was to write a poem that contained words with the letters L and M, and I decided to write about a typical night with my daughter while including words that contained the required letters. I love how I am able to show my creativity within these writing prompts; Writing prompts help me to think about what I want to write about and they also allow me to see my progress in writing. My goal after graduating from North Central is to work for a magazine company as a feature or contributing writer. If it turns out that right after graduating I do not reach my goal, I will still not regret my decision in my major because writing is something I love to do and I do not need money to love writing.