Autobiographical: Week 5

My childhood experience with language was easily defined by my ability and willingness to participate in activities that helped shape my language skills; it has eventually led me to an educational career in English. One of the first real experiences that empowered me and intrinsically catalyzed my creativity was a writing assignment that my fifth grade class participated in which asked of us to create a poem about the worst lunch ever, and our teacher gave us creative freedom over the content that we would be writing about. I remember that it took a little bit to figure out what I wanted to write about until I had the first few lines written down, and then my imagination and my hand took over and finished the rest of my interpretation of the worst lunch ever as a 9 year old kid. The lines felt like they were writing themselves and I was merely writing them down, paying close attention to rhyme scheme and content. The most enjoyable part of the assignment was trying to think of the most putrid and grotesque things that could fit inside a small brown lunch bag. Turning the assignment in later, I remembered I was proud of how well I personally thought that my poem had turned out, and how rewarding it was for me to write a whole poem on my own; it made me feel like a true writer to actually get something published at such a young age. Later in that week, it was announced that the top three poems were to be selected out of our class to be published in a book, and I learned that my poem was one of the pieces selected, that feeling and connection with my language and writing abilities deepened and my confidence built up enough from it that it reflected in the quality of my school work and my willingness to learn throughout my public school experience. I feel that this experience has translated into a sustained connection to writing and stories throughout my childhood, and has benefited me through fostering and celebrating my own imagination, and my ability to connect to it creatively.