Pen & Camera October 2019 | Page 10

Writing has been a talent I’ve had since I was a child. I’ve just never used it outside of school projects until I was a teenager in the final years of middle school. That started with writing short stories as a way to pass time. Then I attempted to write poems. That was something I realized I was even better at than stories. Unlike stories that were just my imagination put into words, poetry was a way to express my many thoughts, feelings and describing various things I was dealing with during that time period.

Regardless if I was dealing with trauma caused by family and the loss of a loved one or I was dealing with the ups and downs that came with relationships or a great moment in my life, poetry allowed me to be able to express myself. I didn’t have anyone who would be willing to listen to what I was thinking and feeling aside from the pieces of paper I would write on or the computers I would use to type my poems online. There were teachers I could’ve talked to, but weren’t allowed to because of my parents. There were even moments where I contemplated suicide and created a few poems on that topic. Despite all those topics relating to something negative, there were quite a few where I would talk about something positive like my current relationship with my partner both relationship wise and business wise.

Along with poems and imaginative writing, I’ve also written articles for a church I used to attend. Whenever there was an event there, I would attend and take notes on the activities, interview the people involved or being honored, talk about what the event was for, etc. Those were great experiences for me and a realization that I can make something else I love to do a career and not just another form of therapy. The more I wrote during my adolescence into adulthood, the more I grew to love it. My love for writing is just as great, if not greater, than my love for photography. They’re both a career I love and ways for me to vent, release street and document various moments in my life.

One Milestone Down, Another to Go: Creative Writing

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